| At present,forestry areas in China are universally faced with numerous development predicaments,such as decrease in total population,environmental degradation and livelihood difficulties of foresters,and crux of solving these predicaments rests in "people".This research focuses on concrete problems about livelihoods of foresters in the process of developing Chinese forestry,proceeds from ecotourism with the idea of sustainable development throughout,and introduces foreign sustainable livelihood theory which has a theoretical basis and is used to solve rural poverty.Then,this research takes the foresters in forestry area as core of the research,and discusses how to realize transition of livelihoods of foresters and sustainable development of forestry area by taking ecotourism as major strategy in the context of three requirements-environmental protection,tourism development,livelihood maintenance of foresters.By defining,analyzing and comparing and jointly studying the concepts of "ecotourism”and"sustainable livelihood" and building upon the sustainable livelihoods framework(SL for short)constructed by the British Department for International Development(DFID),this research rebuilds the sustainable livelihoods framework within the domain of Chinese localization and ecotourism and creatively puts forward the combination of ecotourism sustainable livelihood framework(ETSL for short).In the ETSL framework,we set four core components-livelihood context,livelihood asset,livelihood strategy and livelihood outcome-based on original SL framework,and proceed from livelihood strategy to build three evaluation systems respectively centering on livelihood context,livelihood asset and livelihood outcome,building their own criteria and indicator system,with the hope of using the EETSL framework to evaluate whether ecotourisrn is suitable for foresters in forestry area to develop in practice and propose a sensible development strategy for ecotourism.Based on the ETSL framework,this research conducts an empirical study of the three theoretical evaluation system son Shicheng Town of Miyun County of Beijing City and its four administrative villages.For Shicheng Town,this research uses livelihood context-centered evaluation system with 4 criteria and 24 factors to assess its suitability for ecotourism development,evaluates Xiwanzi Village and Huanyukou Village in terms of livelihood asset of ecotourism,and evaluates Shicheng Village and Pengheyan Village in terms of livelihood outcome of ecotourism development.Through the empirical research on the one town and four villages,the research finally builds and perfects the ETSL framework.The proposal of ETSL framework lays a theore tical foundation future researches on transformation of traditional industries in forestry area to ecotourism and is of practical guiding significance for production practices of foresters in the forestry areaBesides,the main findings obtained by this research based on the ETSL framework are as follows1.Based on the livelihood context in the ETSL framework,we build a system for the evaluation of external conditions of ecotourism which consists of 4 criteria and 24 factors and conducts an empirical research on Shicheng Town.The assessment result shows that quantized score of Shicheng Town is 6.9254,second level in the system,and meets external conditions for regional sustainable development mainly aiming at ecotourism to a large extent.2.Based on the livelihood asset in the ETSL framework,we construct a livelihood asset evaluation model aiming at ecotourism for forester families in forestry areas that have not conducted ecotourism.This research takes Xiwanzi Village and Huangyukou Village,which are in the initial stage of tourism development,as objects of study,and determines that basic entry conditions for the implementation of tourism are "amount of money that a forester is willing to invest in tourism".It is founded that basic conditions have a significant relationship with four indicators-"number of men aged from 19 to 60","number of people who have ability and specialty in tourism","the number of people that a family can dine" and "chance of getting loan".In organization structure which studies forester families in research areas,the number of men aged from 19 to 60 is 3,the number of people who have ability and specialty in tourism is 4,and a family can dine 8 people simultaneously,which is the critical point of entry to the field of ecotourism for local foresters.When the amount of investment in tourism exceeds 30,000 yuan,chance of getting loan will have a strong impact on livelihood on tourism.According to results of livelihood asset evaluation model,the research proposes pertinent exploitation strategy for ecotourism in the initial stage.3.Based on the livelihood outcome in the ETSL framework,we build a livelihood outcome evaluation model for forester families who mainly live by ecotourism in forestry areas that have implemented ecotourism.This research takes Shicheng Village and Pengheyan Village,which are in the mature stage of tourism development,as objects of study for assessment and validation,and finds that income growth and self-development are paramount manifestations of livelihood outcome and are significantly influenced by several factors:sustainability of natural environmental protection,increase in social stability,and welfare improvement;and have a significant relationship with six specific indicators:implementation of conservation projects for protection zones,strengthened ecological values of foresters,more beautiful community environment,more reasonable allocation among foresters,acquisition of relevant entrepreneurial opportunity,and less and less migrant workers.According to results of abovementioned researches,this research proposes a prioritized development strategy for ecotourism in the mature stage.The proposal of the ETSL framework can effectively solve problems whether traditional forestry area can be transformed to ecotourism industry and whether foresters can obtain effective means of livelihood from the development of ecotourism,and evaluate development potential of ecotourism of forestry area and actual results,as well as put forward a more pertinent,more practical and more forward looking development strategy,which is of great practical significance for guiding livelihood development of current Chinese forester families in forestry areas. |
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