Livelihood Resilience and Its Influence on Livelihood Strategy of People in the State-Owned Forest Areas in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia

In 2015, the Chinese government banned logging in the state-owned forest areas in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia. This is an enormous change for people who depend on the forest. Based on a survey of 1573 households in the state-owned forest areas in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia, our study constructs an evaluation index system of livelihood resilience composed of three dimensions: buffer capacity, self-organization, and learning capacity. The method of weighted sum is used to evaluate the livelihood resilience of local residents, and the influencing factors of livelihood strategy are analyzed by a multinomial logistic regression model. The results show that the overall level of livelihood resilience of local residents is neutral, and the self-organization is significantly higher than their buffer capacity and learning capacity. There are significant differences in livelihood resilience among the various livelihood strategies. The livelihood of households practicing forestry as a side job is most resilient followed by those practicing forestry as a main job, diversified livelihood, and forest-dependent. We found that per capita income and per capita housing area are key factors affecting the livelihood strategy shifts. Household size, household composed of multi-generations, and labor determine the basic direction of the livelihood strategy. We argued that the state-owned forest areas in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia need to establish a technical training system for local residents and to strengthen the role of social organizations, which would then improve livelihood resilience.