Differentiation of Forestry-related Livelihoods and the Choices of Rural Households in the Mountainous Areas in West of China ---Evidence from Zhou Zhi County, Shaanxi Province

Appropriate utilization of forest resources is important for improving rural household livelihoods and conservation in the forest rich areas of developing countries. Using a survey of 1074 rural households in 20 administrative villages in the four southern mountainous townships in Zhouzhi County, Xian, China, we find that there are four forestry-related livelihood activities in our survey site. We define them as forestry specialized, forestry complementary, forestry dependent and diversified where these categories are based upon income from different degree of utilization of the forest. There are significant differences in the number of household members, non-farming income, net household income, poverty headcount, etc. among the four types of households. Generally, average income and expenditure of forestry specialized households is greater than those of the diversified. We use a multinomial logit model to analyze the factors influencing household choices among these livelihood activities. We find that household labor, female ratio, participation in the Sloping Land Conversion Program, area of forestland and farmland, and household social networks have significant impacts on households’ choices of the forestry-related livelihood activities. Suggestions for improving livelihood potentials in such environments are discussed.