Evaluation Of Implementation Effect Of Ecological Migration Project Based On Livelihood Capitals

Frequent natural disasters make the countermeasure of population migration a choice for avoiding risks.In addition,the living environment in many areas is very poor,inhabitable or dangerous,which has caused people living in these areas difficult to survive because of unpredictable disasters.As a result,a large number of people have to choose to migrate involuntarily.The ecological immigration project plays an important role in the construction of ecological civilization in the poverty-stricken areas in western China.It has the dual functions of ecological protection and poverty eradication.Therefore,this measure has been widely used in ecologically fragile poverty-stricken areas in western China,and it has achieved quite good results.The ecological immigration project in Shaanxi is a comprehensive project to protect the personal and property safety of people in southern Shaanxi and restore the ecological environment based on the specific conditions of the region,which is responding to the State Council by The People's Government of Shaanxi Province in May 2011.In the "Several Opinions of the State Council on Further Promoting Social and Economic Development in Ningxia",it is also pointed out that "implementing ecological migration is not only a road to poverty alleviation but also a need to solve the problem of poverty." With the accelerating process of ecological environment protection,natural disaster prevention,and poverty alleviation and development in the northwest region,large-scale ecological migration activities will continue.Based on the micro-level of rural households,this paper will explore the implementation effect in the ecological migration projects in Shaanxi and Ningxia provinces.This paper uses the DFID's sustainable livelihood framework to focus on the livelihood characteristics of rural households,and classifying farmers and analyzing the heterogeneity of them based on their livelihood capital.Using variance analysis,calculation of poverty targeting efficiency,logistic regression and other methods to solve the following problems.First,to analyze the overall implementation effect in the ecological migration projects in Shaanxi and Ningxia from the perspective of integrating and quantifying livelihood capital.Secondly,we will assess the antipoverty function of ecological migration projects through comparing the differences in livelihood capital of different types of rural households and calculating poverty targeting efficiency of ecological migration project based on the poverty standard by multidimensional indicators of livelihood capital.Third,to analyze the impact of livelihood characteristics of rural households on poverty targeting efficiency.Finally,it puts forward proposals for policies and institutional arrangements for the ecological immigration project in Shaanxi and Ningxia based on the full consideration of the heterogeneity of livelihoods of rural households and the purpose of improving the sustainability of the livelihoods of immigrant households.The results of the study are as follows.First,through the comparison of the livelihood capital of rural households who participated in the ecological migration project and those who did not participate in the ecological migration project,we find that the livelihood capital of migration households is generally better than that of non-migration households after the implementation of ecological migration project.This reflects that the implementation of ecological migration project has been effective.The migration households are better than nonmigration households in material capital,financial capital and social capital.Meanwhile,the natural capital and human capital of migration households are slightly lower than those of nonmigration households.Secondly,comparing the numerical ranking of sample households' livelihood assets with their participation in the resettlement situation,the targeting efficiency of Shaanxi and Ningxia is 85.08% and 81.58% respectively.This indirectly reflects that ecological migration has played a significant role in poverty alleviation work.As far as Shaanxi is concerned,it has helped about 85% of the poor households to realize the resettlement and make their lives better.In Ningxia,more than 80% of poor households have been immigrated and their livelihoods have been improved.Although there are still certain “extrusion” and “leakage”,it is also a normal phenomenon by synthesizing various factors.Third,based on the logistic regression analysis of livelihood capital,the livelihood characteristics of rural households have different degrees of influence on the farmers' choice to participate in ecological migration.The significant factors affecting the choice of whether rural households in Shaanxi choose to participate in ecological immigration are family work ability,male adult labor,housing situation,per capita cultivated area,and all social capital indicators.Meanwhile,the significant factors affecting the choice of whether rural households in Ningxia choose to participate in ecological immigration are family work ability,housing situation,the proportion of family assets,per capita cultivated area and aggregated number of households.