| The environment is the basis for human survival.Livelihood is the sum of the various survival methods and strategies that emerged and developed during the interaction between humans and the environment.It is closely related to the natural and social environment.It has become an indisputable fact that changes in the environment would inevitably bring about changes in livelihood.However,mankind's strategic choices in dealing with environmental changes are not merely a purely rational technological process,but also a highly subjective process with a value orientation embedded in a certain social context.As the integration point between nature and humanities,the introduction of perception into environmental change and its adaptation studies can make up for the lack of considerations of intangible subjective factors such as public feelings and cultural background in other methods,and can further corroborate the impact of perception on human attitudes and livelihood behaviors,so as to provide a new perspective for the study on environmental change and livelihood strategies.This paper takes the Dai People of Xinping County as an example.Firstly,based on archival data and statistical data,environmental changes and livelihood changes of the research sites since the 1950 s were combed out.Secondly,referring to field survey data,K-mean clustering method is applied to analyze status quo of livelihood strategies of the sample farmers,and divide different strategy types.Thirdly,farmers' perception was introduced and perception indexes were set up,meanwhile combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses were applied to reveal the current situation of farmers' perception in typical villages.Finally,the Pearson correlation analysis was applied and a binary logistic regression model was constructed to explore the impact of environmental perception on the choice of livelihood strategies,and the key environmental factors affecting the choice of livelihood strategies were screened.The results showed as follows: firstly,from the 1950 s to the end of the 1980 s,the livelihoods of rural households in research sites were based on rice farming,supplemented by farming,gathering and hunting,which was a traditional livelihood highly dependent on the local natural environment.After the end of the 1980 s,under the influence of a series of agricultural policies and development projects centering oneconomic development,the traditional way of livelihood was totally changed into cash crop(especially sugarcane)cultivation.Since the 21 st century,with the changes of environment,various ways of livelihood have gradually replaced sugarcane cultivation,and farmers' livelihoods have increasingly diversified.Secondly,with the emergence of diversified livelihoods,livelihood strategies of the typical villages can be divided into three distinct categories of “agriculture-dominated”,“concurrently-oriented”,and“labor-oriented”.Thirdly,in the process of environmental change,the typical village households have clear perceptions and understanding of current state of the environment including land resources,water resources,labor resources,national policies,local measures and markets,and the villagers' perceptions of index showed certain differences.Finally,farmers' choices of livelihood strategies are affected by their perceptions of the environment.When farmers have a higher perception in land quantity,land quality,water quantity,water scarcity,local measures and cooperative institutions,they tend to choose the agriculture-dominated strategies.When they have a higher perception in precipitation change,labor quality,Slope Land Conversion Program,abolition of agricultural taxes and market risks,they tend to choose concurrently-oriented strategies.While they have a higher perception in plant diseases and pests,labor force quantity,labor force quality,opportunity cost,land circulation and market information,they are more likely to choose “labor-oriented” livelihood strategies. |
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