Beyond policy fatigue: how environmental literacy shapes sustainable grazing in China’s pastoral regions

Grassland degradation poses severe ecological and socio-economic risks in China’s pastoral regions. The effectiveness of top-down policies is often constrained by high enforcement costs, low compliance, and a lack of intrinsic motivation among stakeholders. To address this research gap, this study introduces a novel behavioral perspective by examining environmental literacy as a complementary, bottom-up mechanism for sustainable grassland management. Using unique micro-level survey data from 273 herder households in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, we construct a composite index for environmental literacy. Empirically, we employ instrumental variable (IV) regression to establish causality and mediation analysis to unpack the underlying pathways. The empirical results demonstrate that higher environmental literacy significantly reduces grazing intensity and the likelihood of overgrazing. These effects operate primarily through these two mediating channels: enhancing ecological cognition and improving environmental information-processing capacity. Furthermore, we identify a disconnect between attitude and action, where pro-environmental attitudes alone rarely translate into sustainable practices without the requisite knowledge and skills. This study provides one of the empirical assessments of the role of environmental literacy in pastoral systems, highlighting its potential to complement formal institutions and foster more adaptive, self-regulated grazing behaviors. The findings offer important insights for designing integrated policies that promote ecological sustainability and livelihood resilience in China’s pastoral regions.