A Study On The Influence Of Environmental Regulation On The Pro-environmental Behaviour Of Dairy Farmers In Heilongjiang Province

Heilongjiang Province is a major dairy farming province,and dairy farming has played an important role in the adjustment of rural industrial structure,agricultural efficiency and farmers’ income.However,the continued development of dairy farming has brought about increasingly serious environmental pollution,affecting the ecological environment and the quality and safety of raw milk.In recent years,Heilongjiang Province has introduced a series of environmental regulation policies to promote the sustainable development of dairy farming,in an attempt to promote the transformation of dairy farming from the traditional crude model to a green and efficient model.Research and practice at home and abroad have proven that pro-environmental behaviour by dairy farmers is an effective means of fundamentally solving the problem of dairy farming pollution and harmonising the development of dairy farming with ecological protection.Therefore,the question of whether environmental regulation policies can promote pro-environmental behaviour among dairy farmers in order to achieve the goals of supply,ecology and safety has become a major practical issue that needs to be addressed.There have been many studies on the impact of environmental regulations on farmers’ pro-environmental behaviour,but in general,the definitions are relatively homogeneous,and most of them use the choice representation of pro-environmental behaviour,with little attention paid to the more meaningful level of pro-environmental behaviour.This paper takes the promotion of pro-environmental behaviour among dairy farmers as the starting point of the study.Based on the relevant theoretical foundations and 104 sample farm household questionnaires from nine cities in Heilongjiang Province,we use a combination of survey analysis,theoretical analysis,descriptive statistical analysis and econometric model analysis to explore the five aspects of environmental regulation and pro-environmental behaviour among dairy farmers: theoretical foundations,current situation,impact effects,impact mechanisms and countermeasure suggestions.The research methodology and findings are as follows.The specific research methods and findings are as follows:(1)The survey results show that the Heilongjiang provincial government’s regulatory constraints on the sample farmers are higher than the subsidy incentives.The results show that the dairy farmers’ awareness of pro-environmental behaviour at the source prevention stage needs to be strengthened,the importance of pro-environmental behaviour at the process control stage needs to be increased,and the willingness of dairy farmers at the end management stage needs to be consistent with their actual behaviour.The results of the entropy weighting method were used to measure the level of pro-environmental behaviour and showed that the mean score for the level of pro-environmental behaviour of dairy farmers was low,with large differences in individual scores.(2)Using the Tobit model,it was found that incentive-based and constraint-based environmental regulations had a significant effect on the pro-environmental behaviour of dairy farmers,and that incentive-based environmental regulations had a more significant effect than constraint-based environmental regulations.At the same time,there is heterogeneity in the effects of environmental regulations on the pro-environmental behaviour of dairy farmers,with incentivised environmental regulations having a positive effect on large-scale and less educated dairy farmers,while constrained environmental regulations significantly promote pro-environmental behaviour among small-and medium-scale and more educated dairy farmers.A threshold regression model using the degree of embeddedness of social services as a threshold variable showed that there was a non-linear relationship between environmental regulations and pro-environmental behaviour of dairy farmers.(3)There is a mediating effect between perceived economic value and perceived ecological value in the relationship between environmental regulations and pro-environmental behaviour of dairy farmers.The influence of incentive-based and constraint-based environmental regulations on the pro-environmental behaviour of dairy farmers is partly mediated by the perceived economic value and perceived ecological value of dairy farmers,and incentive-based environmental regulations rely more on the positive influence of perceived value on the pro-environmental behaviour of dairy farmers than constraint-based environmental regulations.(4)Normative and cultural village regulations have a negative moderating effect on the relationship between environmental regulations and the pro-environmental behaviour of dairy farmers.The introduction of environmental regulations has weakened the positive influence of village regulations on the pro-environmental behaviour of dairy farmers,while normative and cultural village regulations can,to a certain extent,replace environmental regulations in positively influencing the pro-environmental behaviour of dairy farmers.Based on the above findings,this paper proposes countermeasures to promote pro-environmental behaviour among dairy farmers under the leadership of environmental regulation policies,including: improving the environmental regulation policy system;accelerating the application of pro-environmental farming technology innovation;enhancing the perceived value of pro-environmental behaviour;and fostering the construction of supportive village rules and covenants.