Why Do Herdsmen Not Support Deratization? A Survey on the Awareness of Rodent Control in the Tibetan Areas of Sichuan Province, China
Why Do Herdsmen Not Support Deratization? A Survey on the Awareness of Rodent Control in the Tibetan Areas of Sichuan Province, China
Ming Wang1, Nan Yang2, Xiaolin Zhang2 and Wei Liu1*
ABSTRACT
Rodents are a critical part of the grassland ecosystem, but at a high population density, they trigger grassland desertification, unsustainable development of animal husbandry, increase in the incidence of rodent-borne diseases and the potential for zoonoses. The Sichuan Tibetan area is ecologically fragile and has reported the most serious rodent damage in China. The rodent control technology is presently advanced and diverse, however, awareness among the herdsmen in this area to control the rodents remains relatively regressive. Given the limitations in organizing herdsmen to participate in the government-organized rodent control, open-ended and closed-ended combined questionnaires were executed in the summer of 2020 for investigating the consciousness of deratization and the factors influencing the herdsmen. The age of the respondents ranged between 18 and 73, and 261 valid questionnaires were collected. The results demonstrated that the herdsmen who agreed with deratization were between 31–40 years old (71.70%), possessed a college education or above (69.92%), killed rodents when their damage was serious (70.48%), and participated at least once in deratization organized by the government (76.35%). There was a significant difference in the awareness of rodent control among the herdsmen having different education levels. The consciousness for deratization among the herdsmen was affected by age, education level, attitude towards killing rodents, and several other factors. Thus, it could be concluded that improving the levels of education, the prevention, and control mechanisms, as well as reshaping the deratization concept can encourage the herdsmen to establish a scientific and rational ecological explanation justifying the necessity of deratization. This can not only contribute to the long-term prevention of disease and damage caused by the rodents in the Sichuan Tibetan area but also benefit the local sustainable development.
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