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Role of monitoring in environmental regulation: An empirical analysis of grazing restrictions in pastoral China
Environmental Science & Policy ( IF 6 ) Pub Date : 2020-12-01 , DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.08.023 Huanguang Qiu , Liufang Su , Xiaolong Feng , Jianjun Tang
Environmental Science & Policy ( IF 6 ) Pub Date : 2020-12-01 , DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.08.023 Huanguang Qiu , Liufang Su , Xiaolong Feng , Jianjun Tang
Abstract To alleviate grassland degradation, top-down command-and-control environmental regulation measures such as grazing bans and balance grazing have been implemented to control herders’ animal-stocking rates in the pastoral areas of northern China. However, previous literature has generally acknowledged that grazing restrictions have been ineffective in controlling overgrazing, as herders continue to graze illegally. This study provides the first empirical analysis that examines the mechanism through which a successful grazing restriction might occur and investigates the roles that each instrument component (restriction types, compensation, and monitoring) of the policy mix play in determining its effectiveness. The analysis is based on an unbalanced panel dataset of 348 herd households with 1025 observations surveyed from two major pastoral provinces in China during the years 2015-2017. A fixed-effects panel model is estimated to identify empirically the effects of grazing restrictions on herders’ grazing intensity and overgrazing. Results show that the grazing ban alone had an insignificant impact on overgrazing and that the effectiveness of the grazing ban critically depends upon monitoring. Surprisingly, we find that higher compensation levels in the grazing ban zones lead to increased grazing intensities. Further analysis shows that adequate monitoring is a necessary condition for a successful grazing restriction; data reflecting the monitoring on just 20.9% herders met desired criteria. We suggest that the current command-and-control measures should be replaced with an incentive-based approach that provides subsidies based on outcomes of actual stock-rate reduction. It is also crucial to enforce grazing restrictions by implementing adequate monitoring of herders’ grazing behaviour.
更新日期：2020-12-01
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