Herdsman's Perception and Influencing Factors about Grassland Ecological Environment Degradation Based on Household Investigation and Structural Equation Modeling in Sanjiangyuan Region, China
Affected by the climate changes and human activities,the ecosystem of Sanjiangyuan region has been seriously degraded and fragmented. Herdsman's perception about environment degradation in grasslands will greatly affect local ecological security; the herdsman's unreasonable means of livelihood may be play a very important role in environment degradation. This paper divided herdsman's perception about grassland environmental degradation into eight indexes, i. e. plant coverage, plant height, biodiversity index, rampant rats, black beach phenomenon, desertification, soil erosion, percentages of Oxytropis and Artemisia plants. Based on these comprehensive perception indexes and the structural equation model,the local herdsman's perception about grassland environment degradation were quantitatively analyzed in the seven counties of Guoluo State, Huangnan State and Yushu State in Sanjiangyuan region. The results showed that herdsmen did not completely feel these adverse indexes of environment degradation, although their perceptions in tangible expression such as rampant rats and black beach phenomenon were well established. Yushu State was the lightly degraded area and the herdsman had less perception about environment degradation. Zeku county was the small range of mild continuous degraded area,the herdsman had the highest perception of livelihoods. Therefore, the diversification of herdsman's livelihoods had a direct impact on the perception about grassland environment situations. The livelihood assets and the livelihood capacity of herdsman were the most important factors of perception about grassland environmental degradation; the limited livelihoods of the herdsman should be fundamentally solved by optimizing their livelihoods and emphasizing the environmental education. In order to improve the wellbeing of local herdsman, the conservation strategies and management planning of grasslands should be formulated with an emphasis on improving both human livelihood and environmental protection.