Abstract:

In order to explore the timely adjustment necessity and countermeasures of grazing prohibition policy what practiced in the farming-pastoral ecotone in northern China under the ecological civilization construction and green development background， we take the Yanchi County of Ningxia as a case， which is located in the transitional zone of terrain， climate and vegetation. As a wise person， planner and tester for national development policies， the scholars’ perspective was regarded as the entry point to analyze the social-ecological characteristics and policy effects in the different grazing prohibition stage， and explore the way out and regulation of the grazing prohibition policy by the structured interviews and questionnaires based on the Policy Contextual Analysis framework. The results showed that after the ban on grazing， the livelihood diversity and the behavior of migrant workers and the number of herbivorous livestock had increased significantly. The phenomenon of trespass grazing had been widespread. The problem of uncoordinated farming and animal husbandry had changed from the imbalance of grassland in the early grazing prohibition period to groundwater consumption and farming costs rising while benefits declined in current stage. The grassland coverage， grassland quality and grassland yield showed the improvement trend in the early grazing prohibition period. There was， furthermore， an obvious improvement in the intermediate stage and a significant improvement with some degradation in its current stage. The grazing prohibition policy urgently needs to moderately lift the prohibition in terms of management methods， time and space restrictions. Based on the non-equilibrium theory and polycentric governance， the multi-central grassland governance system should be created in future. The grazing fees system as the theoretically feasible solution can be tried. And the ecological compensation standard for farmers should be increased.

Key words: grazing prohibition policy, policy contextual analysis framework, policy regulation, scholars’ perspective, Yanchi