Study On The Impact Of Ecotourism On Farmers’ Livelihood In Nature Reserve

For farmers living in nature reserves,the development of ecotourism is one of the more effective ways to change their current standard of living and lifestyle.Nature reserves have a natural environmental advantage in developing ecotourism,so it is worth exploring how to make good use of local resources to develop ecotourism and promote the livelihoods of farmers.The Fujian Longqi Mountain National Nature Reserve has been developing ecotourism since 2020 by establishing a ’forest recreation town’.This paper selects Fujian Longqi Mountain National Nature Reserve(hereinafter referred to as Longqi Mountain Nature Reserve)as an example to empirically explore the relationship between the development of ecotourism industry and farmers’ livelihood activities.The study also analyses the impact of ecotourism on the livelihoods of local farmers through sample testing,and finally proposes recommendations to promote the sustainable development of Longqi Mountain Nature Reserve.The study shows that:(1)The number and structure of the five major livelihood capitals of farmers in Longqi Mountain Nature Reserve changed significantly before and after the development of the ecotourism industry,with the most significant changes in the social,financial and human capitals.(2)The binary logistic regression model reveals that indicators such as household size,education level,forest area,tourism production materials,household income,and whether or not someone works for the government have a positive impact on the livelihood strategies of local farmers in choosing to participate in ecotourism operations.Among them,indicators such as the number of household members,education level,means of production for tourism and whether someone works for the government have a strong influence on the livelihood strategy of whether to participate in ecotourism business,while other indicators have a relatively small influence.(3)After the development of ecotourism,the livelihood types of farming households changed significantly,mainly in the form of a decrease in the number of labour-oriented farming households and an increase in the number of mixed and tourism-led farming households,and a significant increase in the diversity index of these two livelihood types of farming households.(4)Before and after the development of ecotourism,the income of farming households in Longqi Mountain Nature Reserve showed a significant increase,and the proportion of income from tourism increased significantly,while the proportion of income from labour and agriculture decreased significantly.In terms of consumption,farmers’ investment in ecotourism operations gradually increased,which shows that farmers have a more positive attitude towards the development of the ecotourism industry.Based on the above data analysis and field research findings,a strategy for the co-development of the ecotourism industry and farmers’ livelihoods is developed,which has dual significance for local economic development and nature conservation.