Livelihood Diversification and Residents' Welfare: Evidence from Maasai Mara National Reserve.

Int J Environ Res Public Health

School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.

Published: February 2023

AI Article Synopsis

  • The article discusses the conflict between environmental protection and the need for economic development in protected areas of developing countries, highlighting the importance of livelihood diversification for increasing household income and reducing poverty.
  • It focuses on the Maasai Mara National Reserve, analyzing various livelihood strategies and how they impact household welfare, using data from 409 households and multivariate regression models.
  • The findings reveal that different livelihood strategies are influenced by various forms of capital (natural, physical, financial, human, social) and suggest that promoting off-farm employment opportunities could enhance local residents' income while ensuring sustainable use of natural resources.

Article Abstract

The contradiction between environmental protection and livelihood development is becoming increasingly serious for most protected areas in developing countries. Livelihood diversification is an efficient way to increase household income to alleviate poverty related to environmental protection. However, its impacts on household welfare in protected areas have rarely been quantitatively explored. This article investigates the determinants of four livelihood strategies in the Maasai Mara National Reserve and explores the association between livelihood diversification and household income and its heterogeneities. Based on the sustainable livelihoods framework and the information collected from 409 households through face-to-face interviews, this study adopted multivariate regression models to obtain consistent results. Results show that the determinants of the four strategies differed. Natural capital, physical capital, and financial capital had significant associations with the probability of adopting the strategy of livestock breeding. Physical capital, financial capital, human capital, and social capital were associated with the probability of adopting the joint strategy of livestock breeding and crop planting and the joint strategy of livestock breeding and off-farm activities. The probability of adopting the joint strategy of livestock breeding, crop planting, and off-farm activities was associated with all five kinds of livelihood capital except for financial capital. Diversification strategies, especially those involving off-farm activities, played greater roles in raising household income. The findings indicate that the government and management authority of Maasai Mara National Reserve should provide the households around the protected area with more off-farm employment opportunities to increase the welfare of local residents as well as to utilize natural resources appropriately, especially for those located far away from the protected area.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10001152PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20053859DOI Listing

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