基于牧户感知和野外调查相结合的内蒙古东部草甸草原健康评价

治理草原退化是我国草原管理的重点和难点。我国目前关于草原退化判断、退化程度、原因及治理等系列问题的确定几乎皆以科学研究结果为依据,而忽视了牧户作为草原直接使用者和管理者的重要性。牧户对草原有自己的判断和认知,其与科学方法研究之间的矛盾已经影响到草原生态保护政策的有效实施。以内蒙古东部草甸草原牧户尺度草原为研究对象,借助牧户调研和野外调查相结合的方法,将牧户划分为高、中、低3个经济水平,并运用Condition-Vigor-Organization-Resilience (CVOR)指数评价法,分析评价草原生态系统健康状况。研究结果显示,牧户对草原健康状况的感知主要从植被、土壤、牲畜等方面,与科学方法评价指标选取具有相似性;牧户感知和CVOR指数法评价结果具有一致性,均判定草原生态系统呈现不同程度退化;统计检验显示牧户对植被、土壤、牲畜影响等指标变化感知方面均不存在显著差异(P0.05),CVOR指数法下不同经济水平牧户草场健康指数之间亦无显著差异(P0.05),两种方法均显示不同经济水平牧户草场退化程度无显著差异(P0.05)。研究证实了牧户感知在指标选取、评价结果方面具备用于准确评价草原健康状况的可行性和可信度。两种方法相互补充,将有利于更加准确、实时动态监测和评价牧户尺度草原生态健康状况,为调整优化畜牧业生产实践提供指导和草原生态保护和建设政策的有效实施提供保障。

Rangeland health assessment in the meadow steppe region of Inner Mongolia: Integrating herder perception and field sampling

Controlling rangeland degradation has been the key issue of Chinese rangeland management. However, the research of rangeland degradation mainly be based on scientific methods, and neglects the importance of local herders, who have been directly responsible for rangelands. They have their own perceptions about the rangeland condition. This has resulted in conflicts between scientific methods and herder perception, and then adversely the affected effective implementation of conservation programs. In this paper, an explorative study was conducted to integrate herder perception and field sampling to assess rangeland condition at the household scale, in the meadow steppe region of Inner Mongolia. The households were divided into high, medium, and low economic levels based on survey data. A Condition-Vigor-Organization-Resilience (CVOR) model was used to calculate the health index of rangelands under different household economic levels. Results showed that both methods used many of the same indicators to assess rangeland condition. Results of both methods indicated that the rangelands were unhealthy and degraded. Among the rangelands, there were no significant differences between herder perception and CVOR assessment results (P > 0.05) under different household economic levels. Results demonstrated the feasibility and reliability of using herder perception to assess rangeland condition in terms of evaluation criteria and results. The integration of herder perception and scientific methods has potential to contribute to assessing and monitoring rangelands.