A Study of Livelihood Transformation Strategies for Digitally Driven Pastoralists’ Ecological Perceptions

Abstract Digital information technology is progressively emerging as a key conduit for enhancing cognition, awakening, and fostering the transformation of herders’ subsistence practices. The digital countryside is a strategic avenue for rural rejuvenation. The essay examines the mediating role of grassland ecological cognition and uses 383 field research data from grassland pastoral areas in the northern frontier to analyze the influence of ICT embedding intensity on herders’ livelihood strategies using the Mlogit model. The research findings indicated that: (1) the northern herders’ primary livelihood choices were part-time and animal husbandry, which accounted for 52% of the total; on the other hand, the lowest proportion of work was done outside of their hometowns; and (2) there was a non-linear, inverted U-shaped relationship between the herders' livelihood strategies and ICT embeddedness. In other words, relative to the pure animal husbandry livelihood strategy, the deeper the ICT embedding intensity, the greater the probability of herders choosing the animal husbandry and part-time livelihood strategy, part-time livelihood strategy of animal husbandry and tourism, and work away from hometown livelihood strategy, but when the embedding intensity reaches the relative threshold, it will be unfavorable to the transformation of herders’ livelihoods. Therefore, herders should reasonably control the intensity of daily Internet access; (3) Herders’ ecological cognition can be greatly enhanced by ICT embedding, and herders’ online education and social interaction can also greatly enhance their ecological cognition; additionally, ecological cognition can act as a partial mediating factor between ICT embedding and the transformation of herders’ livelihood; (4) The analysis of heterogeneity indicates that it is advisable to limit the daily Internet access of herders to a range of 3–6 hours. This limitation has a positive impact on the transformation of herders’ livelihoods. Furthermore, within this range, a higher level of ICT embedding has a greater potential to promote the transformation of herders’ livelihoods, particularly among those in the middle and lower age groups.