Ecological migration effects on the Tianchi Scenic Area in Xinjiang: from the perspective of migrant farmer families

Abstract

As an important approach for relieving conflicts between ecosystems and human activities in the Tianchi Scenic Area, Xinjiang of China, an ecological migration policy was implemented, aiming to improve the regional ecological environment. The case of resettlement was closely related to the smooth implementation of the migration project. Based on the questionnaires and farmer family interviews, both changes in the ecological environment and the living conditions of migrant farmer families in the Tianchi Scenic Area were investigated in this study. The objectives were to assess the benefits of the ecological migration policy and to analyze the effects of ecological migration on migrant farmer families. The results showed that (1) awareness of the need for ecological environmental protection and the types of migrant families had a great influence on the willingness to migration; (2) since the implementation of the ecological migration project, the ecological environment in the Tianchi Scenic Area had improved significantly, particularly in terms of returning farmland to forestry, while pressures on grassland had also been relieved to some extent; (3) the major income sources and occupations of the migrant farmer families changed, the range of their income sources declined, and their per capita incomes decreased at different degrees; and (4) nearly half of the farmer families were not satisfied with the living environment of new settlements and the decline in the quality of life had significant influences on the attitudes of migrants. In order to ensure the successful implementation of an ecological migration project, it is essential to enhance farmer awareness of needs for ecological environmental protection, and to solve resettlement problems properly.

Gobernabilidad y participación de los migrantes en los proyectos de migración ambientales en Ningxia (China)

“…La plupart des publications académiques ont privilégié les aspects économiques des projets de migration (Bao, 2006 ;Chen, 2007 ;Shi, 2008), mettant l'accent sur l'influence des déplacements sur le niveau de vie des migrants (Wilmsen et al, 2011 ;. Dans cette région, comme dans d'autres provinces chinoises, ces enquêtes adoptent des méthodologies similaires, à savoir une comparaison entre la situation pré-et post-migratoire des ménages et des individus (Tang et al, 2012 ;Duan et McDonald, 2004 ;Dickinson et Webber, 2007).…”

“…Nos résultats confirment certains résultats d'enquêtes menées sur les mécanismes internes d'élaboration et de mise en oeuvre des politiques publiques en Chine, notamment dans le cadre de migrations environnementales. Récemment, certains auteurs comme Tang et al (2012), Grushke (2012) et Foggin (2011, entre autres, ont identifié les effets positifs d'une véritable participation communautaire et de l'appropriation du projet par les populations locales. Ces derniers arrivent à la conclusion que l'élément clé de la réussite des projets de migration environnementale est « de travailler au rythme de la communauté, et non pas au rythme des parties externes, et ce qui est plus important encore, de rechercher et de donner la possibilité aux voix locales de se faire entendre aussi souvent que possible » (Foggin, 2008).…”

Evaluation and Strategic Response of Sustainable Livelihood Level of Farmers in Ecological Resettlement Area of the Upper Yellow River—A Case Study of Liujiaxia Reservoir Area, Gansu Province

“…The urgent situation of climate change, environmental crisis and deep poverty makes ecological migration research the focus of international organizations, governments and academic institutions. Foreign scholars have studied the theory and practice of ecological migration earlier, mainly focusing on the concept and classification of ecological migration [ 3 , 4 ], occurrence mechanism [ 5 , 6 , 7 ], the prediction of the subsequent development of migration [ 8 , 9 , 10 ], the relationship between ecological migration and environment [ 11 , 12 , 13 ] etc., and Chinese scholars pay more attention to the causes and purposes of ecological migration [ 14 ], sustainability and survival status of migrant society [ 15 ], social adaptation [ 16 ] and spatial evolution [ 17 ], ecological migration policy and management [ 18 ], economic benefits [ 19 ] and risk assessment [ 20 ], impact on the environment [ 21 , 22 ], etc. Over the past 30 years, with the continuous development of the practice of ecological migration, world scholars have conducted multi-level and all-round research on ecological migration from different disciplinary perspectives.…”

Factors influencing immigrants’ satisfaction in Danjiangkou Reservoir based on logistic regression model

“…Obucina (2013) focused on the analysis of life satisfaction and income satisfaction among immigrants in Germany. There is no explicit theoretical model that seeks to understand immigrants' settlement experiences but rather a practice to examine the roles of several groups of factors, specifically economic factors, human capital, social integration factors, and demographic characteristics (Lin, 2011;Wilmsen, 2011;Liu & He, 2012;Tang et al, 2012). These studies focused on one-sided indexes that could not reflect the comprehensive factors influencing immigrants' satisfaction.…”