Livelihood transformation from fishing to tourism: an adaptive sustainable livelihood framework for understanding lakeside communities of China

Highlights

● A specific examination of the livelihood transition within a lakeside community in China was undertaken.

● The analysis centered on examining the process of livelihood changes from both institutional and action perspectives.

● Improving locas’ physical assets in tourism development can boost their property-based income and facilitate sustainable transformation.

● The analysis highlighted the crucial role of human capital in the livelihood transition process, emphasizing the significance of talent and innovative models in ensuring its sustainability.

Abstract

Fisheries in coastal and lakeside regions are increasingly facing sustainability challenges. This predicament has compelled these regions to shift toward economic diversification, with tourism emerging as a feasible alternative economic activity. This study focuses on a rural community adjacent to Erhai Lake in Dali City, Yunnan Province, China, examining its shift from a fishing-based economy to tourism over several decades. Employing an adaptive sustainable livelihood framework, this study assessed the livelihood transformation across various stages over an extended period, from both institutional and action-oriented perspectives, analyzing factors influencing sustainable livelihood transformation in lakeside communities and their subsequent effects. This research revealed several key insights. Firstly, tourism, as an alternative industry to fishing, not only faces increasingly stringent environmental protection policies but also confronts multiple challenges from the community level. Secondly, the improvement of the physical assets of locals within the tourism development, which can increase property-based income, has the potential to facilitate a sustainable transformation of their livelihoods. Thirdly, analysis identifies the pivotal role of human capital in the current transition process, with the influence of talent and innovative livelihood industry management models gaining prominence to ensure sustainability of this transformation.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Lakeside community / livelihood trans- formation / fisheries / tourism / China

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Compliance with ethics guidelines

Feng Ba, Xiaoyun Li, Yue Ding, and Lixia Tang declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2024. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)