Can non-pastoral employment alleviate grazing pressure among herding households?—Empirical evidence from the pastoral areas of Inner Mongolia, China

Introduction Overgrazing behavior has long constrained the sustainable development of livestock production in China’s grasslands. In response to this challenge, the government has gradually implemented grassland ecological compensation policies and grazing monitoring systems. However, solely relying on government control is insufficient to fully reconcile the dual objectives of production development and ecological protection in pastoral areas. Against this backdrop, non-pastoral employment has increasingly become an important link in promoting labor transfer in pastoral areas and facilitating ecological restoration of grasslands. Participation in non-pastoral employment not only enhances the resilience of livelihoods in herding household, but also provides a feasible pathway for transforming traditional breeding methods and alleviating pressure on grasslands. Methods Therefore, this paper systematically studies the mechanisms through which non-pastoral employment empowers ecological protection of grasslands, aiming to provide scientific evidence and policy references for practices in this field, thereby contributing to achieving a win-win scenario for both economic and ecological outcomes in pastoral areas. Therefore, based on survey data from 1,030 herding households in Inner Mongolia, empirically analyzes the impact of non-pastoral employment on the grazing pressure of herding households, as well as the underlying mechanisms and heterogeneity. Results The findings indicate that: (1) Non-pastoral employment has a significant negative impact on the grazing pressure of herding households. (2) Mechanism analysis reveals that the non-pastoral employment time encourages herding households to adopt livestock reduction behavior (LRB) to alleviate grazing pressure; additionally, the non-pastoral employment income promotes herding households to adopt both livestock reduction and grazing substitution behaviors (GSB), further alleviating grazing pressure. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the negative impact of non-pastoral employment time on grazing pressure is more pronounced in agro-pastoral ecoton. Discussion Based on these findings, it is recommended to strengthen vocational and technical training for herding households to assist them in achieving livelihood transformation, improve conditions for non-pastoral employment, thereby achieving the dual goals of improving livelihoods and ecological protection.