Sustainablelivelihood under community-based co-management of forestresources : a case study in Gansu Baishuijiang National Natural Reserve, China | |
| Author | Haiyun, Chen |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.NR-11-07 |
| Subject(s) | Forest management--China Baishuijiang National Natural Reserve, China |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Natural Resources Management, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Dissertation ; no. NR-11-07 |
| Abstract | High speed economic development, especially for the process of industrialization has led to huge natural resources consumption seriously. Although many countries have started to advocate the "Green Industrialization" emphasizing the sustainable use of natural resources, how to use and manage natural resources in the long-term is still a big challenge all over the world. As one kind of important natural resources, forest resource also is facing the same fate. In China, the fact behind of the 8% of GDP every year to some degree is the tremendous expenditure of natural resources, of course, forest resources also especially can not be escaped. In past 50 years, a series of laws and policies have been created to manage and protect forest resources. However, these laws mainly focused on natural resources conservation and they considered much more the negative influence of natural resources which the local communities had with little or no attention to the livelihood of the local community residents. The compulsory protection has also led to significant social and economic problems, especially with regard to the livelihoods of local residents. In order to solve livelihood problems and to reduce relationship tension community-based co-management (CBCM) was introduced and applied in some natural forest reserves. After application of CBCM projects in natural reserves, the situation of natural resource conservation and livelihood of local community residents have improved to some degree, but some problems and conflicts also emerged in the process. Some macro suggestions and measures have been taken to solve these problems, but effectiveness is not expected. The key of failure is that we did not found the real reasons behind theses problems. Livelihood condition is a complex system including many different aspects and capitals, such as human capital, social capital, natural capital, physical capital and financial capital. In addition their separate characteristic of each capital, they also have closed and complex relations among capitals. Little study focused on micro research on these problems. Less demonstrated studies on CBCM and livelihood sustainability try to analyze and solve these problems, which also lead to the shortage of scientific basis while decision making. Based on the consideration of the problems above we plan to study these problems from a new and integrated channel. The study topic is sustainable livelihood under impact of community based co-management of forest resources in China. The study objective is to demonstrate the changes of livelihood changes in past five years and sustainable livelihood outcomes between participators and non-participator in CBCM. The study methods mainly involve several parts. The first one is selection of study area. The second one is data collection including primary and second data. The third one is sampling methods, it mainly includes three aspects: selection of sampling villages; distribution scheme of sampling amount; random sampling; description of sampling villages. The fourth one is data analysis. It will refer to different statistic methods, such as descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, t-test and ANOVA, multiple regression analysis and curve estimation. Last but not least is the methods of measurement and prediction of livelihood assets. The analysis process mainly includes four aspects. The first one is changes of livelihood assets from 2006 to 2010. The second one is based on the analysis of changes oflivelihood assets measurement of the livelihood assets pentagon from 2006 to 2010. Meanwhile, we predict the development trend of livelihood assets. The third one is the correlation analysis of sustainable livelihood outcomes between participators and non-participators. The last 111 one is the measurement of livelihood assets pentagon changes between participators and non-participators in CBCM. The conclusion mainly includes two aspects. The first one is in the past five years CBCM indeed has a positive impact on livelihood development. At the same time, five livelihood capitals including physical, natural, human, financial and social have a significant increase. The second one is the sustainable livelihood outcomes differ between participators and non-participators in CBCM, and the components of different aspects including social, ecological and economic also show particular characteristics in the current and future participation of CBCM and livelihood improvement. Based on some critical problems exposed in the process of analysis we provide feasible recommendations from nine aspects; to increase household investment in agricultural production; to solve employee shortage in busy farming season; to improve cultivation patterns and create own brand; to improve the medical conditions and rural medical insurance system; to alleviate the burden of expenditure of weddings and funerals; to maintain and strengthen perception of local community residents to forest resource management and conservation; to optimize the structure of household energy consumption; to pay more attention for special groups in community; to improve design and implementation of CBCM projects. Under the cooperation of government, CBCM projects and local community residents, the harmonious development of sustainable livelihood improvement and forest resources conservation will be an important trend in the future. |
| Year | 2011 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Dissertation ; no. NR-11-07 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Natural Resources Management (NRM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Shivakoti, Ganesh P.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Resurreccion, Bernadette P. ;Cochard, Roland ;Makoto, Inoue; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | China Scholarships Council (CSC) ; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2011 |