The Impact Of Payments For Environmental Services On Farmers' Livelihood

Wuyishan Nature Reserve has 76.9 million mu of national ecological public welfare forest,6.6 million mu of provincial ecological public welfare forest,accounting for 62%of the total ecological forest area of Wuyishan City,which is the best and most complete virgin forest vegetation protection area in Fujian Province,having an irreplaceable impact in Fujian Province and even the country's ecological construction.Ecological public welfare forest plays an irreplaceable role in the conservation of water,conservation of biodiversity and maintaining ecological security.Wuyishan Nature Reserve payments for environmental services worked since 2001 by the Wuyishan Nature Reserve Management Bureau which is responsible for the management of the region that was classified as ecological forest of state-owned,collective forest owners to subsidize.Payments for environmental services as an effective tool to solve the ecological and environmental problems,can effectively help solve the problem which realates to social and economic development and ecological environment between the contradictions.The management measures of payments for environmental services limit the use of natural resources by farmers in the protected areas,so that their livelihoods are greatly affected.Farmers play an improtment role in the participants of the payments for environmental services,the level of their livelihood not only affect the enthusiasm of farmers' participate in ecological compensation projects,but also affect the sustainability of payments for environmental services.Based on the sustainable livelihood theory and public goods theory,this paper establishes the farmer's livelihood capital index system and calculates the farmer's livelihood diversification index which based on the sustainable livelihood framework.According to the study of the farmers' natural resources status,living environment,living habits and other factors to refine and adjust the indicators,and using the matching sample T test method to test the change of the degree of farmer's livelihood before and after the farmers' participants of the payments for environmental services.Finally,according to the results of empirical analysis and the actual situation of Wuyishan Nature Reserve,this paper puts forward some feasible suggestions and policies to improve the livelihood level of farmers in protected areas and solve the contradiction between farmer economic development and ecological environment protection.By comparing Wuyi Mountain Nature Reserve farmers' living capital and livelihood way before and after payments for environmental services,the following conclusions are obtained:1.After the payments for environmental services,the total capital index of farmers in Wuyishan Nature Reserve increased,and the index of physical capital,human capital and social capital of farmers increased significantly,which indicated that payments for environmental services significantly affected the material capital,human capital,social capital,and the effect is positive;the natural capital index is significantly reduced,indicating that the payments for environmental services significantly affected the natural capital of farmers,and this effect is negative;farmers financial capital index decline but the change is not significant,indicating that the impact of payments for environmental services to farmers financial capital is not significant.2.After the payments for environmental services,the changes of the living capital index of farmers are different.The increase of human capital in Wuyishan Nature Reserve was the largest,followed by social capital and material capital.The decline in the index of natural capital was the largest and the decline in financial capital index was small and insignificant.3.Payments for environmental services has changed the livelihood capital structure of farmers.Before and after payments for environmental services,the percentage of farmer household's total capital in the total capital of farmers' livelihoods changed.The biggest change is the natural capital,the decreasing order is human capital,financial capital,social capital and material capital.The percentage of human capital in the total capital of livelihood increased from 21.34%to 26.86%;the percentage of natural capital in the total capital of livelihood decreased from 21.03%to 14.387%;the percentage of material capital in the total capital of livelihood increased from 21.402%to 22.593%.The percentage of financial capital in the total capital of livelihood decreased from 26.427%to 22.867%,while the proportion of social capital in total capital increased from 9.801%to 13.293%.4.In Wuyishan Nature Reserve,the farmers of the Wuyishan Nature Reserve have been deprived of their dependence on natural resources and the total number of people engaged in agriculture and the total number of people engaged in non-.agricultural industries.The percentage of people engaged in tea and bamboo cultivation decreased from 82.02%to 58.96%and 23.06%respectively after the payments for environmental services.The percentage of those engaged in wage work increased from 1.26%before to 3.89%The percentage of people engaged in eco-tourism related industries increased from 5.36%to 12.31%and 6.95%respectively.The percentage of business people and migrant workers were 0.32%and 4.42%,respectively,Up 6.91%,9.07%,an increase of 6.59%,respectively,4.65%.This is mainly because some farmers improve the quality of culture and socio-economic development,these farmers choose to migrant workers,business and other non-agricultural industries to increase household income.5.After the payments for environmental services,the farmers choose to engage in a variety of production methods to increase family income,farmers' household livelihood diversification index increased significantly.After the compensation of ecological public welfare forest,the diversification index of livelihood activities in Wuyishan National Nature Reserve increased from 1.088 to 1.473.Households engaged in one kind of livelihood activities were reduced from 89.01%to 53.85%of those involved in ecological public welfare forest project.It can be seen that although the total percentage of households decreased from one kind of livelihood,the households with one kind of livelihood were still in the study area Accounting for half the proportion.Households engaged in two kinds of livelihood activities were increased from 9.89%to 41.76%before the project,which showed that the number of households engaged in two kinds of livelihoods was increasing.Households engaged in three kinds of livelihood activities increased from 0%to 3.30%from the top 0%of participating in ecological public welfare forest project,and the growth rate was small.No household engaged in 4 or more livelihood activities.The increase in the Livelihood Diversification Index is due to the fact that the ecological public welfare forest project,as a kind of external pressure to restrict the use of natural resources,reduces the farmers,reliance on agriculture,forcing them to seek non-agricultural livelihood activities to increase their income,Family livelihood security,reduce livelihood risks.