Perception of environmental value, income effect and herder satisfaction with ecological compensation: empirical evidence from grazing ban zones and grassland-livestock balance zones in Inner Mongolia, China

Introduction The Ecological Compensation Policy (ECP) is an essential policy instrument designed to improve China’s grassland ecosystems and herders’ livelihoods. Under the constraint background of the dual vulnerability of the grassland ecosystem and herders’ livelihood system, the comparative analysis of the synergistic mechanisms between ecological protection incentives and herders’ interest demands in grazing ban zones (GBZs) and grassland-livestock balance zones (GLBZs) is helpful to optimize ECP and achieve the incentive compatibility goal of grassland ecological protection and herders’ livelihoods improvement. Methods Based on field survey data from 740 herder households in GBZs and GLBZs of Inner Mongolia during the third phase of ECP, this study used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to investigate the impacts and underlying mechanisms of herders’ environmental value perception and income effect perception on ecological compensation satisfaction. Results The principal findings are as follows: (1) Both in GBZs and GLBZs, herders’ environmental value perception and income effect perception exert significant positive effects on their satisfaction with ecological compensation; (2) In GBZs, herders’ cognition level regarding ecological compensation positively and significantly influences their satisfaction through both direct and partial indirect pathways, while expectation perception influences satisfaction only through indirect pathways; (3) In GLBZs, herders’ cognition level regarding ecological compensation influences satisfaction only through indirect pathways, whereas expectation perception exerts a positive and significant influence on satisfaction through both direct and indirect pathways. Discussion In the future, policy formulations should optimize ECP by zoning and grading, improve the subsidy standard of basic grassland ecological benefits, improve the cognition level of herders, and help the sustainable development of grassland ecology.