IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i8p1393-d107324.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Balancing Rural Household Livelihood and Regional Ecological Footprint in Water Source Areas of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project

Author

Listed:
  • Chen Wang

    (School of Public Administration, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China)

  • Guoqing Shi

    (School of Public Administration, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China)

  • Yongping Wei

    (School of Earth and Environmental Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4067, Australia)

  • Andrew William Western

    (School of Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia)

  • Hang Zheng

    (School of Earth and Environmental Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4067, Australia)

  • Yan Zhao

    (School of Earth and Environmental Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4067, Australia)

Abstract

There is a knowledge gap and practical demand to understand the co-evolutionary relationship between rural household livelihood and regional ecological footprints for developing sustainable livelihoods in ecological conservation regions. This paper tracks the change trajectories of rural household livelihoods and regional ecological footprints in four water source areas of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project where various ecological and environmental protection projects and measures are being proposed to protect water quality. As a result, some concerns regarding rural livelihood have arisen. The sustainable livelihood approach developed by DFID (Department for International Development in UK) was used to measure the natural, physical, financial, human, and social capitals of rural livelihoods, while the ecological footprint accounting approach was used to calculate the amount of bio-productive spaces that produce the yearly resource flows for human consumption. The study period is 2000–2014 and data was obtained from the Statistical Yearbooks. The results show that the change trend of natural capitals of rural households, which have increased by 72.5% (SY), 98.8% (NY), 69.3% (TA), and 120.3% (JN) within 15 years, determine the overall change track of rural livelihoods and that rural household livelihood grows with the expansion of regional ecological footprints. Sensitivity of regional eco-footprints to rural livelihood varies from 5.8 to 0.5 in case areas. It is recommended that in the “post South-to-North Water Diversion era”, four policy instruments—population transfer and relocation, industrial restructuring and updating, rural infrastructure and community reconstruction, and cross-ecological compensation—should be adopted to improve sustainable livelihoods in these four water source areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen Wang & Guoqing Shi & Yongping Wei & Andrew William Western & Hang Zheng & Yan Zhao, 2017. "Balancing Rural Household Livelihood and Regional Ecological Footprint in Water Source Areas of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-20, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:8:p:1393-:d:107324
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/8/1393/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/8/1393/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reed, M.S. & Podesta, G. & Fazey, I. & Geeson, N. & Hessel, R. & Hubacek, K. & Letson, D. & Nainggolan, D. & Prell, C. & Rickenbach, M.G. & Ritsema, C. & Schwilch, G. & Stringer, L.C. & Thomas, A.D., 2013. "Combining analytical frameworks to assess livelihood vulnerability to climate change and analyse adaptation options," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 66-77.
    2. Leach, Melissa & Mearns, Robin & Scoones, Ian, 1999. "Environmental Entitlements: Dynamics and Institutions in Community-Based Natural Resource Management," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 225-247, February.
    3. Kemkes, Robin J., 2015. "The role of natural capital in sustaining livelihoods in remote mountainous regions: The case of Upper Svaneti, Republic of Georgia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 22-31.
    4. van den Bergh, Jeroen C. J. M. & Verbruggen, Harmen, 1999. "Spatial sustainability, trade and indicators: an evaluation of the 'ecological footprint'," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 61-72, April.
    5. Sevil Acar & Ahmet Atil Asici, 2015. "Does Income Growth Relocate Ecological Footprint?," Working Papers 938, Economic Research Forum, revised Sep 2015.
    6. Mensah, Emmanuel Joseph, 2011. "The Sustainable Livelihood Framework: A Reconstruction," MPRA Paper 46733, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Bennett, Nathan James & Dearden, Philip, 2014. "Why local people do not support conservation: Community perceptions of marine protected area livelihood impacts, governance and management in Thailand," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 107-116.
    8. Silva, Patricia, 2006. "Exploring the linkages between poverty, marine protected area management, and the use of destructive fishing gear in Tanzania," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3831, The World Bank.
    9. Frank Ellis, 2000. "The Determinants of Rural Livelihood Diversification in Developing Countries," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 289-302, May.
    10. Thomas Tanner & David Lewis & David Wrathall & Robin Bronen & Nick Cradock-Henry & Saleemul Huq & Chris Lawless & Raphael Nawrotzki & Vivek Prasad & Md. Ashiqur Rahman & Ryan Alaniz & Katherine King &, 2015. "Livelihood resilience in the face of climate change," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 23-26, January.
    11. Bartlett, R. & Bharati, Luna & Pant, Dhruba & Hosterman, H. & McCornick, P. G., 2010. "Climate change impacts and adaptation in Nepal," IWMI Working Papers H043439, International Water Management Institute.
    12. Edward Carr, 2013. "Livelihoods as Intimate Government: Reframing the logic of livelihoods for development," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 77-108.
    13. Barley Kincaid, Kate & Rose, George A., 2014. "Why fishers want a closed area in their fishing grounds: Exploring perceptions and attitudes to sustainable fisheries and conservation 10 years post closure in Labrador, Canada," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 84-90.
    14. Ferrol-Schulte, Daniella & Wolff, Matthias & Ferse, Sebastian & Glaser, Marion, 2013. "Sustainable Livelihoods Approach in tropical coastal and marine social–ecological systems: A review," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 253-258.
    15. Matthew Turner & Augustine Ayantunde & Kristen Patterson & E. Daniel Patterson, 2011. "Livelihood Transitions and the Changing Nature of Farmer-Herder Conflict in Sahelian West Africa," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 183-206.
    16. Sheriff, Natasja & Little, David C. & Tantikamton, Kwanta, 2008. "Aquaculture and the poor--Is the culture of high-value fish a viable livelihood option for the poor?," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1094-1102, November.
    17. Allison, Edward H. & Ellis, Frank, 2001. "The livelihoods approach and management of small-scale fisheries," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 377-388, September.
    18. Bremer, Leah L. & Farley, Kathleen A. & Lopez-Carr, David & Romero, José, 2014. "Conservation and livelihood outcomes of payment for ecosystem services in the Ecuadorian Andes: What is the potential for ‘win–win’?," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 148-165.
    19. World Bank, 2016. "World Development Indicators 2016," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 23969.
    20. Bebbington, Anthony, 1999. "Capitals and Capabilities: A Framework for Analyzing Peasant Viability, Rural Livelihoods and Poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(12), pages 2021-2044, December.
    21. Heidecke, Claudia, 2006. "Development and evaluation of a regional water poverty index for Benin:," EPTD discussion papers 145, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    22. Angelsen, Arild & Jagger, Pamela & Babigumira, Ronnie & Belcher, Brian & Hogarth, Nicholas J. & Bauch, Simone & Börner, Jan & Smith-Hall, Carsten & Wunder, Sven, 2014. "Environmental Income and Rural Livelihoods: A Global-Comparative Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(S1), pages 12-28.
    23. Ellis, Frank, 2000. "Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198296966.
    24. Cernea, Michael M. & Schmidt-Soltau, Kai, 2006. "Poverty Risks and National Parks: Policy Issues in Conservation and Resettlement," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 1808-1830, October.
    25. Oecd, 2009. "Climate Change and Africa," OECD Journal: General Papers, OECD Publishing, vol. 2009(1), pages 5-35.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chuxiong Deng & Zhen Liu & Rongrong Li & Ke Li, 2018. "Sustainability Evaluation Based on a Three-Dimensional Ecological Footprint Model: A Case Study in Hunan, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-22, November.
    2. Hua Huang & Daizhong Su & Wenjie Peng & You Wu, 2020. "Development of a Mobile Application System for Eco-Accounting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-24, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Santos, Anna N. & Brannstrom, Christian, 2015. "Livelihood strategies in a marine extractive reserve: Implications for conservation interventions," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 44-52.
    2. Quandt, Amy, 2018. "Measuring livelihood resilience: The Household Livelihood Resilience Approach (HLRA)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 253-263.
    3. Eliaza Mkuna & Lloyd Baiyegunhi & Wiktor Adamus, 2020. "Sustainable livelihood alternatives among Nile perch (Lates niloticus) fishers in Lake Victoria Tanzania: analytical hierarchy process (AHP) approach," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 9(1), pages 1-18, December.
    4. Shah, Sameer H. & Angeles, Leonora C. & Harris, Leila M., 2017. "Worlding the Intangibility of Resilience: The Case of Rice Farmers and Water-Related Risk in the Philippines," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 400-412.
    5. H.M. Tuihedur Rahman & Gordon M. Hickey, 2020. "An Analytical Framework for Assessing Context-Specific Rural Livelihood Vulnerability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-26, July.
    6. Hatim Albasri & Jesmond Sammut, 2021. "A Comparison of Vulnerability Risks and Conservation Perceptions between Mariculture, Fishery and Ecotourism Livelihood Groups in a Multi-Use MPA in Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-17, November.
    7. Solomon Zena Walelign & Mariève Pouliot & Helle Overgaard Larsen & Carsten Smith-Hall, 2015. "A novel approach to dynamic livelihood clustering: Empirical evidence from Nepal," IFRO Working Paper 2015/09, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    8. Gujun Pu & Alice Chang-Richards & Suzanne Wilkinson & Regan Potangaroa, 2021. "What makes a successful livelihood recovery? a study of China’s Lushan earthquake," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 105(3), pages 2543-2567, February.
    9. Harry W Fischer & Ashwini Chhatre, 2016. "Assets, livelihoods, and the ‘profile approach’ for analysis of differentiated social vulnerability in the context of climate change," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(4), pages 789-807, April.
    10. Gamel Abdul-Nasser Salifu, 2019. "The Political Economy Dynamics of Rural Household Income Diversification: A Review of the International Literature," Research in World Economy, Research in World Economy, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(3), pages 273-290, December.
    11. Emdad Haque, C. & Julián Idrobo, C. & Berkes, Fikret & Giesbrecht, Dale, 2015. "Small-scale fishers’ adaptations to change: The role of formal and informal credit in Paraty, Brazil," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 401-407.
    12. Til Prasad Pangali Sharma & Jiahua Zhang & Narendra Raj Khanal & Pashupati Nepal & Bishnu Prasad Pangali Sharma & Lkhagvadorj Nanzad & Yograj Gautam, 2022. "Household Vulnerability to Flood Disasters among Tharu Community, Western Nepal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-19, September.
    13. Mohammad Mahmudul Islam & Rumana Aktar & Md. Nahiduzzaman & Benoy Kumar Barman & Md. Abdul Wahab, 2018. "Social Considerations of Large River Sanctuaries: A Case Study from the Hilsa Shad Fishery in Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-17, April.
    14. Martin, Sarah M. & Lorenzen, Kai, 2016. "Livelihood Diversification in Rural Laos," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 231-243.
    15. Walelign, Solomon Zena & Jiao, Xi, 2017. "Dynamics of rural livelihoods and environmental reliance: Empirical evidence from Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 199-209.
    16. Walelign, Solomon Zena & Lujala, Päivi, 2022. "A place-based framework for assessing resettlement capacity in the context of displacement induced by climate change," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    17. Clay, Nathan & King, Brian, 2019. "Smallholders’ uneven capacities to adapt to climate change amid Africa’s ‘green revolution’: Case study of Rwanda’s crop intensification program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 1-14.
    18. Nathan Clay, 2018. "Integrating livelihoods approaches with research on development and climate change adaptation," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 18(1), pages 1-17, January.
    19. Vasco, Cristian & Torres, Bolier & Pacheco, Pablo & Griess, Verena, 2017. "The socioeconomic determinants of legal and illegal smallholder logging: Evidence from the Ecuadorian Amazon," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 133-140.
    20. Ty Pham Huu & Marçon Raphaël & Bayrak Mucahid Mustafa & Phuong Le Thi Hong, 2022. "The 2016 Vietnam marine life incident: measures of subjective resilience and livelihood implications for affected small-fishery communities," Environmental & Socio-economic Studies, Sciendo, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:8:p:1393-:d:107324. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.