Abstract
Livelihood diversification is beneficial to mitigate economic and environmental risks and to improve livelihood sustainability and regional sustainable development. Unsettled herder households (UHH), settled herder households (SHH) and farmer households (FH) are different household types in far northwestern China whose livelihood diversification has not been fully explored. By applying a framework of livelihood diversification, this paper presents a comparative analysis of the characteristics and determinants of the diversification of the three household types. The results show that livelihood assets have been unequally distributed, with FH possessing the least assets; however, FH are better than UHH and SHH in the diversification of livelihood activities. Agriculture remains the most important livelihood source. The high-income groups of the three household types have a higher number of livelihood activities but do not necessarily hold an advantage in equality of livelihood activities. Labor capacity and income are positively related to the number of livelihood activities for the three household types. Livestock size is negatively associated with the number of activities of herders. Moreover, age and subsidy have negative impacts on the number of activities for UHH. Based on the findings, we provide policy suggestions on livelihood enhancement and sustainable and effective development of pastoral regions.
Highlights
Livelihoods are fundamentally interwoven with the environment [1,2,3]
Based on the prevalent Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF) proposed by the Department for International Development (DFID), we propose a conceptual framework of Livelihood diversification (LD) in pastoral regions of China (Figure 1), which focuses on the effect of livelihood assets, the vulnerability context and the transforming structures and processes on LD
Unsettled herder households (UHH) have the highest wealth and livestock size, which is consistent with previous studies in northern Xinjiang showing that pastoralists are the highest earners and that sedentarization has been accompanied by declines in household income and asset holdings [18,47]
Summary
Livelihoods are fundamentally interwoven with the environment [1,2,3]. Effective ecological restoration and sustainable development initiatives and policies need to consider the livelihoods of local households and encourage their participation [7,8]. The concept of Sustainable livelihoods, which links socioeconomic and environmental concerns in order to achieve environmental sustainability and social sustainability [9], resonates with the UN Sustainable Development Goals [10]. Productive livelihoods are key to achieving sustainable development [8,10]. One important pathway towards sustainable livelihoods for the inhabitants of marginal environments involves the avoidance of long-term dependency on only one income source [11]
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