Abstract
Herders’ living strategy is a function of the capitals at their disposal which also serve as a buffering mechanism when shocks arise. An insight into the connection between livelihood strategies and capitals owned by herders provides guidance to recognize their living situation. This study evaluated the different livelihood capitals of herders across the five ecological types (meadow, typical, desert, sandy, and desert steppe) in Inner Mongolia region of China, using the sustainable livelihood framework approach. An evaluation index was developed and used to investigate how the livelihood capitals of herders affects preferential selection of livelihood strategies using multinomial logit model. Results indicate that: (1) The stocks of human and social capitals were higher while those for natural, physical, and financial capitals were lower. (2) There were significant regional differences in the livelihood capital stock of herders’ families with zonal horizontal decrease from east to west. (3) Natural capitals affects the preferential selection of livelihood strategies by herders positively implying that possession of more natural capitals by herders leads to selection of livelihood strategies that are devoid of pastoral production; the preferred livelihood strategy of herders was significantly negatively affected by physical and financial capitals, an indication that, when herders possess more physical and financial capitals, they tend to choose livelihood strategies that involve pastoral production. The living strategy of herders was not affected by human and social capitals. (4) Production of rented pasture capital index affected the preferential selection of livelihood strategies by herders positively while cash income capital index had negative influence on how pastoralists select their livelihood strategies. In conclusion, the total livelihood capital of herders in Inner Mongolia is low, and there is perceived benefit in the differentiation of herders families into petty-herders and non-grazing families from the perception of natural resource management and sustainability. This requires income diversification programs such as capacity building and business education that will aid the smooth transition of households to these less resource exploiting livelihood strategies.
Highlights
Livelihood can be defined as a measure of the set of actions taken by people within their capacity and capitals to make a living by maintaining highly diverse portfolio of activities, while livelihood capitals cover natural, physical, human, social and financial resources that are critical to the survival of people in response to stresses and shocks while not compromising the natural resource base (Ansoms and McKay, 2010; Mutenje et al, 2010; Ellis, 2000; Scoones, 1998) [1,2,3,4]
(3) Natural capitals affects the preferential selection of livelihood strategies by herders positively implying that possession of more natural capitals by herders leads to selection of livelihood strategies that are devoid of pastoral production; the preferred livelihood strategy of herders was significantly negatively affected by physical and financial capitals, an indication that, when herders possess more physical and financial capitals, they tend to choose livelihood strategies that involve pastoral production
We developed an approach for categorizing households into livelihood strategies pursued by herders in Inner Mongolia region of China with the aim of understanding their livelihood features, and how different livelihood capitals drives the adoption of categorized livelihood strategies and their ensuing income structure
Summary
Livelihood can be defined as a measure of the set of actions taken by people within their capacity and capitals to make a living by maintaining highly diverse portfolio of activities, while livelihood capitals cover natural, physical, human, social and financial resources that are critical to the survival of people in response to stresses and shocks while not compromising the natural resource base (Ansoms and McKay, 2010; Mutenje et al, 2010; Ellis, 2000; Scoones, 1998) [1,2,3,4]. Livelihood capitals are capable of being stored, exchanged and transferred in the process of generating income for the household (Ansoms and Mckay, 2014; van den Berg, 2010; Waleleign et al, 2016; Waleleign, 2017); [5,6,7,8,9], and livelihood strategies are the sequence of activities and choices made by individuals with the objective of attaining livelihood goals, including but not limited to production and financing of investment strategies [10,11] These strategies change constantly depending on the asset portfolios and economic shocks experienced by households (Mutenje et al, 2010) [2]. Studies on the relationship between farm household livelihood strategies and livelihood capitals have received much attention in recent years (Walelign et al, 2016; Peng et al, 2017) [8,15]
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