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Farmer households’ livelihood resilience in ecological-function areas: case of the Yellow River water source area of China

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Abstract

Key ecological function areas are not only recognized as the critical subject for national and global ecosystem protection, but also the crucial hinterland for maintaining the livelihood of local residents. Studies on livelihood resilience contribute to better understand the adaptation strategies and development needs of poor and highly vulnerable groups in key ecological function zones, which is crucial to promoting the long run sustainability. Based on the survey data of 575 households, this paper constructs the livelihood resilience evaluation index system from three dimensions of buffer capacity, self-organization ability and learning ability. The method of weighted sum is used to evaluate the livelihood resilience of farmers, and the influencing factors are analyzed by multiple regression model. The results show that the overall level of livelihood resilience of farmers is weak, and the self-organization ability of farmers is significantly higher than their buffering ability and learning ability. We found that ecological policy, age of head of household, diversity of livelihoods, family size, and environmental dependence are the key factors that affect the resilience of farmers' livelihoods. We argued that, new methods such as establishing a technical training system for farmers, promoting livelihood diversity, improving and implementing active ecological policies, and building long-term and effective risk warning, emergency response, and poverty alleviation mechanisms should be considered and implemented.

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Notes

  1. The method of extreme deviation standardization: X′ = (X − Xmin)/(Xmax − Xmin).

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA19040502), Natural Science Foundation of China (41661115, 41971268, 41971166); The Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (2016181), and the support from China Scholarship Council (No. 201806180102).

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  1. College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, 730070, China

    Xueyan Zhao, Huanhuan Chen & Haili Zhao

  2. Key Lab of Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 72, Wenhua Road, Shenhe District, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Bing Xue

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Zhao, X., Chen, H., Zhao, H. et al. Farmer households’ livelihood resilience in ecological-function areas: case of the Yellow River water source area of China. Environ Dev Sustain 24, 9665–9686 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01827-w

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