This paper emphatically analyzed the significance of ecological adaptation of the preferences of farmers and herdsmen to government leading ecological construction projects in Mountain-River-Lake of Jiangxi Province and Three-River Headwaters of Qinghai Province,using the methods of participatory rural appraisal,existing literatures and ecological time.The results indicated that the preferences of farmers and herdsmen involved maximum economic benefit,continuous production means,and sustainable belief and custom.They were the stable forces to determine whether government leading ecological construction was carried out successfully and obtained expected effects or not.Some of them could provide new ideas and directions for the arrangements or further appropriate adjustment of ecological adaptation strategies.And some of them could be used to restore or reconstruct impaired ecological basement,as they were sound practices and actions for ecological construction themselves.However,in Mountain-River-Lake,farmers' preferences finally presented the pursuit of maximum economic benefit.They were easily used for the adaptive policy arrangement of mountainous ecological reconstruction.In Three-River Headwaters,herdsmen's preferences were still in the framework of belief and custom.They were difficultly changed for the adaptive measure design of pasture restoration.Moreover,the former can be converted to more active adaptive participation,while the latter is still more passive,when appropriate guidance measures are taken.