【Objective】 Studying the evaluation and response of herdsmen to the policy of rest grazing and ban- ning grazing is helpful to fully understand the current livelihood demands and realization dilemma of herdsmen,so as to provide decision-making reference for guiding herdsmen’s pro-environmental behavior and improving relevant poli- cies.【Method】 The conscious participation and strong supervision of herdsmen based on internal stress is the basis of grassland ecological protection. Taking the grassland pastoral area of Maqu County,the first bend of the Yellow River as the research area,this paper analyzed the herdsmen’s response to the grazing rest and Grazing-ban Policy from three aspects:subjective cognition,production behavior and livelihood mode.【Result】 The results showed that,herds- men reached a consensus on the ecological problems of fragile grassland and consciously responded to the policy of grazing rest and Grazing-ban. The production mode of herdsmen was transformed from traditional grazing to modern house feeding. The continuous expansion of employment channels for herdsmen had greatly accelerated the process of herdsmen’s “transformation from agriculture to non-agriculture”,and their social role had changed from a single “shepherd” to diversified roles of discoverer,creator and distributor of market value. Herdsmen’s income had formed a diversified pattern composed of animal husbandry operation income,wage income and transfer income. At the same time,the traditional production and operation expenditure tended to decline,while the social communication expendi- ture continued to increase. In addition,herdsmen’s policy response process had obvious “following” and illegal or un- reasonable grazing behavior. With the continuous promotion of the policy,herdsmen’s alienation behavior gradually converges.【Conclusion】 Cultivating herdsmen’s ecological rationality based on internal stress and improving the op- eration and supervision mechanism of grassland protection system are of great significance to the green development of pastoral areas. In the future,the enhancement of livelihood capital and livelihood capacity of herdsmen should be combined with the improvement of incentive mechanism for grazing prohibition,grazing and grass planting and the in- crease of grazing subsidies,so as to improve the energy efficiency of grassland protection and restore the ecological en- vironment of grassland while increasing the income of herdsmen.