Rural Household Livelihood and Tree Plantation Dependence in the Central Mountainous Region of Hainan Island, China: Implications for Poverty Alleviation

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruida Li ◽  
Hua Zheng ◽  
Cuiping Zhang ◽  
Bonnie Keeler ◽  
Leah H. Samberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Rural Livelihoods ◽  
Hainan Island ◽  
Rural Household ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
Mountainous Region ◽  
Tree Plantation ◽  
Mountainous Regions ◽  
Household Livelihood

Plantations support local economies and rural livelihoods in many mountainous regions, where poverty and a fragile environment are often interlinked. Managing plantations sustainably and alleviating poverty is a major challenge. This study reports on the findings of a household livelihood survey in the central mountainous region of Hainan Island, a global biodiversity hotspot. The survey aimed to identify rural household livelihoods, strategies to lift rural households out of poverty and potential environmental consequences of different livelihood strategies. Households were divided into five groups based on their main source of income: plantations, crops, livestock, local off-farm income and remittances. Plantations were the main source of income for 74% of households and provided 46% of the total income. Plantation land area, planting diverse tree species and intercropping were significantly associated with higher income. Reallocating land by family size could increase the proportion of households above the poverty line in the plantation group from 51.3% to 85.3%, while making only 3.3% of households worse off. Lower income households tended to apply more chemicals to plantations, which suggests that they create more strain on the environment. Improving household income through dynamically allocating plantation land and diversifying planted species could therefore be beneficial both socially and environmentally. Our results emphasize the importance of dynamic plantation land allocation and diverse plantation planting in poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability.

Impact of Sustainability Reporting on Firm Performance of Companies in India

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Priyanka Garg
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Rural Livelihoods ◽  
Sustainability Reporting ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Marginal Lands ◽  
Great Ability ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Core Idea

The core idea of sustainability is that current decisions should not impair the prospects for maintaining or improving future living standards (Repetto, 1986). GRI (2006) defined sustainability as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The challenges of sustainable development are many and it is widely accepted that organizations have not only a responsibility but also a great ability to exert positive change on the state of the worlds economy, and environmental and social conditions. Further, the issue of environmental sustainability is intertwined with that of poverty and inequity. The causative relationship runs both ways- increased poverty and loss of rural livelihoods accelerates environmental degradation as displaced people put greater pressure on forests, fisheries, and marginal lands. The present study has made an attempt to investigate the relationship between sustainability reporting and financial performance of companies in India. Data have been collected with the help of annual reports of selected companies and Prowess Database. Collected data have been analyzed with the help of SPSS 16.0. The study shows that sustainability reporting practices of companies has improved over the time. Further, research reveals that sustainability reporting practices of a firm impact its performance negatively in short run while positively in long run.

scholarly journals Decades of tree planting in Northern India had little effect on forest density and rural livelihoods

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Coleman ◽  
Bill Schultz ◽  
Vijay Ramprasad ◽  
Harry Fischer ◽  
Pushpendra Rana ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Cover ◽  
Rural Livelihoods ◽  
Mitigation Strategy ◽  
Tree Planting ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Forest Density ◽  
Northern India ◽  
Local Livelihoods ◽  
Dense Forest ◽  
Household Livelihood

Abstract Myriad scholars, policymakers, and practitioners advocate tree planting as a climate mitigation strategy and to support local livelihoods. But, is the broad appeal of tree planting supported by evidence? We report estimated impacts from decades of tree planting in Northern India. We find that tree plantings have not, on average, increased the proportion of dense forest cover, and have modestly shifted species composition away from the broadleaf varieties valued by local people. Supplementary analysis from household livelihood surveys show that, in contrast to narratives of forest dependent people being supported by tree planting, there are few direct users of these plantations and their dependence is low. We conclude that decades of expensive tree planting programs have not proved effective.

scholarly journals Formulating Popular Policies for Peat Restoration Based on Livelihoods of Local Farmers

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Wildayana ◽  
M. Edi M. Edi Armanto
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Rural Livelihoods ◽  
Political Aspect ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Peatland Restoration ◽  
Intrinsic Quality ◽  
Peatland Degradation ◽  
Local Farmers

Important peatland issues developed were how to restore peatlands and followed by increasing rural livelihoods. This research aimed to analyze how peatlands can be utilized to alleviate poverty? and how to integrate peatland restoration with poverty alleviation. This research has been conducted in peatlands of OKI district, South Sumatra Indonesia in 2017. Data about bio geophysical aspects of peatlands, social, economic and political institutions of farmers were surveyed in the fields, performed in qualitative and quantitative approach, and analyzed in forms of tables and descriptions. Important themes have been discussed in formulating popular policies for peat restoration based on livelihoods of local farmers, among others poor groups; characteristics of farmers from the socio-political aspect; concept of peatland restoration and other lessons-learnt; compatibility of peat-based poverty alleviation; and need to improve policy making. The chronic poor sites tend to overlap with peatland degradation; it is more important to cultivate peatlands to prevent farmers from falling into deeper poverty than to reduce farmers out of poverty, and the intrinsic quality of peatlands and their contents tends to conflict with poverty alleviation goals, but there are some possible trends to minimize peatlands degradation and to alleviate poverty simultaneously. The best approach is to apply the 'win-lose' or 'lose-win' approach, even though we are not able to avoid peatland degradation at a zero level, but at least it can be inhibited. Cooperation between investors and farmers in managing peatlands is needed, so that the peatland resources are not completely degraded.

scholarly journals Rural Households’ Livelihood Strategy Choice and Livelihood Diversity of Main Ethnic Minorities in Chongqing, China

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 8166
Author(s):  
Shuxin Mao ◽  
Sha Qiu ◽  
Tao Li ◽  
Mingfang Tang
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Rural Households ◽  
Rural Household ◽  
Livelihood Strategies ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Sustainable Livelihood ◽  
Livelihood Strategy ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Household Livelihood ◽  
Livelihood Capitals

Rural household livelihood research of ethnic minorities is urgent to the development of ethnic areas in China and achieve the world poverty reduction goal. To improve ethnic rural household livelihood, it is fundamental to figure out what are the types, characteristics as well as impact factors of their livelihood strategies. In the study, we explored the household livelihood strategy choices and livelihood diversity of the main ethnic minorities (Tujia and Miao) in Chongqing, as well as how livelihood capitals impact livelihood strategy through methods of clustering, livelihood diversity index and multiple logistic regression under the framework of sustainable livelihood approach. The results show that: (1) Full-time job, both full-time and part-time job, part-time agriculture, part-time job and subsidized livelihood strategy are livelihood strategies adopted by Tujia and Miao rural households in Chongqing, China. (2) The characteristics of the identified livelihood strategies are diversified and various in natural, financial, human and finance capital. (3) A number of livelihood capitals impact the way that household choose their livelihood strategies, but the livelihood capitals have no significant impact on the livelihood diversity. By detailed analysis of the characteristic of rural ethnic household livelihood strategy, especial livelihood diversity, the research enriched sustainable livelihood literature and provided useful information for policymakers and practitioners in designing effective programs for regional sustainable development and ecological protection.

From rainfall to farm incomes—transforming advice for Australian drought policy. II. Forecasting farm incomes

2007 ◽  
Vol 58 (10) ◽  
pp. 1004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Nelson ◽  
Philip Kokic ◽  
Holger Meinke
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Risk Model ◽  
Rural Livelihoods ◽  
Companion Paper ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
Income Risk ◽  
Income Sources ◽  
Bioeconomic Modelling ◽  
Effects Of Drought ◽  
Income Variability

Australian drought policy is focussed on providing relief from the immediate effects of drought on farm incomes, while enhancing the longer term resilience of rural livelihoods. Despite the socioeconomic nature of these objectives, the information systems created to support the policy have focussed almost exclusively on biophysical measures of climate variability and its effects on agricultural production. In this paper, we demonstrate the ability of bioeconomic modelling to overcome the moral hazard and timing issues that have led to the dominance of these biophysical measures. The Agricultural Farm Income Risk Model (AgFIRM), developed and tested in a companion paper, is used to provide objective, model-based forecasts of annual farm incomes at the beginning of the financial year (July–June). The model was then used to relate climate-induced income variability to the diversity of farm income sources, a practical measure of adaptive capacity that can be positively influenced by policy. Three timeless philosophical arguments are used to discuss the policy relevance of the bioeconomic modelling. These arguments are used to compare the value to decision makers of relatively imprecise, integrative information, with relatively precise, reductionist measures. We conclude that the evolution of bioeconomic modelling systems provides an opportunity to refocus the analytical support for Australian drought policy towards the rural livelihood effects that matter most to governments and rural communities.

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