The Relationship between Ecosystem-Based Adaptation with Poverty Alleviation: A Case Study from Southwest Forest Communities in China

Abstract

Poverty is a long-lasting societal problem, especially in developing countries and rural areas. Climate change impact is expected to disproportionally worsen poverty conditions, especially for natural resources and agricultural dependent households likely to be negatively affected by flooding and drought. This thesis explores whether and how Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), which uses biodiversity and ecosystem services to help people to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change, influences the livelihoods of poor rural households in southwest China. It focuses on an ecosystem-based adaptation project under China’s policy “Grain for Green” implemented by the government and targeting forest communities. It aims at exploring the links between ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) and poverty alleviation and adopts a basic-needs approach (BNA) to measure poverty. Using an ordinal logistic regression model and related moderation analysis we explore the factors that influence both households' fulfillment of basic needs and perception of well-being. We found that: a) EbA is correlated with subjective fulfillment of basic needs; b) EbA affects households and can both help alleviate and aggravate poverty, depending on project design and how an EbA project may affect a household’s overall livelihood and c) limited household generic capacity will constrain the beneficial effects of EbA on poorer households. These results can inform future EbA based projects in China and other parts of the developing world where rural households face negative impacts of climate change.