Cooperative management can mitigate trade-offs between livestock production and ecological functions to promote grassland sustainability

An increase in the population in pastoral regions and an improvement in living standards have increased livestock production; however, this has led, at least in part, to global grassland degradation. Consequently, the optimal pathway to mitigate trade-offs between livestock production and ecological functions of grassland is the key to achieve sustainable development in pastoral regions. Transformative adaptation is the recommended and feasible approach. However, most studies are not designed to determine which grassland management system addresses transformative adaptation and, therefore, do not provide options that can resolve the trade-offs. To fill this gap, we compared three grassland management systems, namely single, joint and cooperative. The grassland health index (GHI), data envelopment analysis (DEA), life cycle assessment (LCA), TOPSIS model and the multi-objective optimization model were employed to assess the productive and ecological benefits of the three systems. Cooperative management had the greatest comprehensive benefits when considering ecological functions, livestock production, carbon efficiency utilization and grassland area utilization efficiency, and had the greatest potential to achieve a balance between livestock production and ecological functions in the future.