Classification of the Relationship between Household Welfare and Ecosystem Reliance in the Miyun Reservoir Watershed, China

Abstract

Abstract:Household welfare is inseparable from the environment because of its dependence on ecosystems and their services. However, linking household welfare and ecosystems in order to inform differentiated household livelihood development in spatially heterogeneous regions is still a great challenge. Based on a field survey of 1754 households, we grouped the relationships between household welfare (defined by total income) and ecosystem reliance (expressed by an index of dependence on ecosystem services) in the Watershed of Miyun Reservoir, the only source of surface water for domestic use in Beijing, China. The relationships can be grouped into four types: high welfare and high dependency; low welfare and low dependency; high welfare and low dependence; and low welfare and high dependency. Family structure, households' education and skill level, and the proximity to Beijing have significant impacts on household welfare, while the quantity of natural capital and eco-compensation fund significantly contribute to the ecosystem dependence. Maintaining suitable family size and age structure, improving education and skill levels, and strengthening payment for ecosystem services within low welfare households would be effective approaches to their welfare improvement. The above classification can help design tailored policy and management options to promote sustainable livelihoods based on different household subgroups.

Livelihood Diversification of Farm Households and Its Impact on Cultivated Land Utilization in Agro-pastoral Ecologically-vulnerable Areas in the Northern China

“…In this study, households with more non-farming labor, more non-farming income, and more cultivated land per laborer tended to transfer out of farmland. Similar results were also appeared in the river basins of U.S. counties (Bhandari, 2013), the Miyun Reservoir watershed (Peng et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2017) and the Loess Plateau . Non-farming labor and income bring diversity livelihood way, and broaden the revenue channels, leading the farmland transfer out.…”

“…The Shannon-Wiener index was applied to describe the diversification of farming household livelihoods (Wang et al, 2017). The calculation formula is…”

“…Through SPSS22.0, linear regression analysis was carried out based on the impact factors of the livelihood diversification. The model used the 'livelihood diversity index' as a dependent variable to analyze the possible reasons for livelihood diversification (Wang et al, 2017). The calculation formula is…”

“…Typically, an agro-pastoral farming system is a crop-livestock mix. Therefore, off-farm employment is suitable for small farmland holders with a few animals, and they can lessen farming to reduce resource dependence and increase household welfare (Peng et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2017). Those with large areas of farmland need to learn rational farmland management for sustainable development (Flannery et al, 2015;Mikulcak et al, 2015;Garibaldi et al, 2017) with the long-term goal of achieving ecological stability and economic development (Travers et al, 2015;Vincent and Fleury, 2015).…”

“…Two typical behaviors of farmland use (transfer and intensity) affect the development of agriculture. The welfare of farmers largely depends on ecosystems service, especially land resources (Costanza et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2017;Malmborg et al, 2018;Everard et al, 2019). It has been confirmed that livelihood diversification leads to high incomes, and off-farm households are able to reduce natural resource reliance, thereby alleviating the pressure on farmland for contributing to local environmental and economic health (Hao et al, 2015a;Peng et al, 2017;Dong et al, 2019;Liu and Wang, 2019).…”