Under the condition of different endowment factors of herders and imperfect market mechanisms, grassland transfer can promote the redistribution and rational utilization of grassland resources, which has a crucial impact on herders’ livelihood. This study fully examined how the grassland rental market improves herders’ income and to what extent, using unbalanced panel data with 560 herder households in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau pastoral areas. A fixed effect model was used as the baseline model. The instrumental variable approach and propensity score matching method were utilized to address the endogeneity problem and sample selection bias. Finally, the mediating effect model was used to analyze the path mechanism of grassland transfer in/out on herder income. The results showed that the total household income increased significantly after participating in grassland transfer. Grassland rent-in increased livestock income, and grassland rent-out increased non-livestock income. After correcting for the selection bias, the income effect of grassland transfer became larger. The grassland rent-in increased the livestock income by promoting production investment. Grassland rent-out increased the non-livestock income by promoting non-pastoral employment.

In the context of advancing the transformation and upgrading of grassland animal husbandry, encouraging and guiding the widespread adoption of livestock insurance plays an important role in promoting the sustainable development of the livestock industry. This paper explores the impact of herders’ attitudes and perceptions towards climate change risks on their livestock insurance strategies. Firstly, experimental economics methods are employed to measure the risk preferences of herders on the Tibetan Plateau. Secondly, a theoretical model incorporating risk preferences and insurance adoption behavior is constructed. Finally, the effects of herders’ risk preferences on insurance adoption behavior are empirically examined through double-hurdle models, instrumental variable models, and moderating effect models. The results reveal that (1) most herders on the Tibetan Plateau exhibit risk-averse characteristics. (2) The degree of risk preference has a significant negative impact on herders’ insurance adoption behavior, while the risk perception significantly positively influences insurance adoption. The results remain valid even after addressing issues of endogeneity and conducting robustness checks. (3) Livestock income plays a crucial moderating role in the mechanism through which risk attitudes affect insurance adoption behavior. (4) The impact of risk preference on insurance adoption behavior shows regional and income heterogeneity.

Coordinating ecological restoration with livelihood protection is a central challenge in grassland governance, particularly in regions where ecological fragility coincides with strong dependence on pastoral production. Using panel data for 1008 county-level units in 11 provinces from 2005 to 2020, this paper applies a difference-in-differences approach combined with an event-study design to examine the ecological and income effects of two rounds of China’s Grassland Ecological Compensation Policy (GECP), as well as their underlying mechanisms. The results show that the ecological effects of the GECP are dynamic, peaking two to three years after implementation before gradually stabilizing. The first-round policy significantly improved grassland ecological conditions, increasing the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) by about 3%, but reduced herders’ per capita disposable income by about 6.9%. By contrast, the second-round policy also significantly improved grassland ecological conditions, with an average NDVI increase of about 1.7%, while its income effect was small and statistically insignificant. Mechanism analysis shows that the ecological effects are stronger in areas with lower dependence on animal husbandry and poorer initial grassland conditions, while heterogeneity analysis indicates stronger ecological gains in low-population-density and low-income regions. Overall, the GECP contributes to ecological restoration, but its income gains remain limited.