Improving herdsmen’s well-being through scenario planning:A case study in Xilinhot City,Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

Grassland ecosystems support well-being with food,shelter,income,and culture of herdsmen.While the associa-tion between ecosystem services and human well-being has been widely studied,such association is understudied in grassland ecosystems.This study aims to fill this gap through a case study of Xilinhot City,Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,China.We examined the association between grassland provisioning services and herds-men’s well-being between 1985 and 2015 through participatory observations,interviews,surveys,and Bayesian belief network modeling.Considering the uncertainties of weather and sheep prices,we developed four scenarios to examine the future well-being of herdsmen.Our results show that the most important factor for herdsmen’s well-being was income,which is highly sensitive to the market price of sheep and precipitation.Considering the uncertainties of sheep prices and precipitation,scenario analysis revealed a divergence between income and well-being.While herdsmen’s income is most likely to increase with low precipitation and increased sheep prices,their well-being is most likely to improve with abundant precipitation and increased sheep prices.Based on our find-ings,we argue that developing alternative income sources(e.g.,tourism),reducing dependence on government subsidies through commercial insurance,and branding lamb with grassland ecosystem to alleviate the impact of price fluctuations would help improve herdsmen’s well-being in all scenarios.