Livelihood Strategies in Shaxi, Southwest China: Conceptualizing Mountain–Valley Interactions as a Human–Environment System

Franz Huber,Klaus Seeland,Caroline Weckerle,Michael Morlok

doi:10.3390/su7033204

Abstract

This paper investigates the socio-ecological differences and interactions between upland and lowland areas in Shaxi Valley, Yunnan Province, Southwest China. As an analytical tool we used an extended Human–Environment System Framework by focusing particularly on the dynamics and sustainability of livelihood strategies and mountain–valley interactions. Drawing from household surveys conducted in two mountain and two valley communities in 2005 and 2009, we show that the distinct income gap between mountain and valley households in 2005 ceased to exist in 2009. The main drivers for this development are the local tourist industry, persistent demand for forest resources, as well as local off-farm and seasonal migrant employment.

Highlights

Lowland and upland regions throughout the world, but in developing economies, are interlinked through complex socio-ecological interactions on various levels [1]
Unsustainable land use practices such as commercial logging and agricultural intensification in mountainous areas have been claimed to have a negative impact on lowland areas and whole watersheds should be considered for the analysis of socio-ecological interactions in order to understand the rationale of the highland/lowland complementarity [4,5]
Livelihoods in Shaxi are predominantly based on agriculture and the extraction of forest resources, such as medicinal plants, edible mushrooms, or timber from unlicensed small-scale logging

Summary

Introduction

Lowland and upland regions throughout the world, but in developing economies, are interlinked through complex socio-ecological interactions on various levels [1]. While economic development and societal change often start in the accessible lowlands, remote mountainous areas provide vital resources for these processes, such as natural resources, agricultural products, and labor surplus [2,3]. The Sloping Land Conversion Program (tuigeng huanlin gongcheng), which was introduced to provide economic incentives for farmers to promote the reforestation of erosion-prone farmland in the mountainous upper reaches of these rivers. As these policies had adverse impacts on local governments and households, tourism, off-farm labor, and the commercialization of natural resources other than timber have been promoted for economic development [6,7,8,9]. We focus on the livelihood system of an ethnic minority area where economic development and the resulting societal change are met with survival strategies that have been and still are being developed by basically agrarian communities

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion