Assessing restoration benefit of grassland ecosystem incorporating preference heterogeneity empirical data from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

Yu Cai; Minjuan Zhao; Yuxing Shi; Imran Khan

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106705

Assessing restoration benefit of grassland ecosystem incorporating preference heterogeneity empirical data from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

Ecol Indic. 2020 Oct:117:106705. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106705. Epub 2020 Jul 15.

Authors

Yu Cai^{1

2}, Minjuan Zhao^{1

2}, Yuxing Shi^{1

2}, Imran Khan^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Economics and Management, Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University, 3 Taicheng Road, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China.
² Key Research Base of Philosophy and Social Science, Shaanxi Province 712100, China.

Abstract

The evaluation of grassland ecosystem restoration benefit considering herdsmen's preference is an important reference for the formulation of grassland protection policy. This study aims to evaluate the marginal benefits of grassland ecosystem services by using choice experiment and mixed logit (ML) model, and a latent class model (LCM) is estimated to identify and explain the heterogeneity of herdsmen's preference for the various functions of the grassland ecosystem, so as to estimate the benefits of grassland ecosystem restoration in Siziwang Banner and Damao Banner of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The results reveal that the restoration benefit of the grassland ecosystem in the two banners is nearly 341.1 million RMB per year. The application of latent class model highlights three potential segments of the herdsmen with different preferences. The social, economic and environmental attitudinal characteristics of herdsmen have significant impacts on their preferences. Thus, to improve the universality of grassland ecological restoration policy, herdsmen's preferences should be thoroughly investigated before policy formulation and implementation. Meanwhile, it is important to publicize the grassland ecosystem services, to popularize the role of wildlife in the ecosystem, and to realize the benign interaction between wildlife protection and animal husbandry development.

Keywords: Benefit evaluation; Choice experiment; Grassland ecosystem; Latent class model; Preference heterogeneity.