Future Studies on Rural Livelihoods and Environmental Sustainability

In the previous chapters, we have described rural livelihoods and their various components, and rural residents’ choice of livelihood activities and their strategies in this area, etc.; analyzed how forest resources are used in rural livelihoods and how rural households feel about forestry and ecological-protection policies, etc.; and examined the relationship between rural livelihoods and environmental sustainability at the rural household level (i.e., the microscopic level). We have also analyzed the interaction between rural livelihoods, policies designed for the protection of the ecology and the ecology and environment by studying the background characteristics of Ankang City in Shaanxi Province and Zhouzhi County, Xi’an, the forestry and ecological-protection policies that have been implemented, and field data collected by the research team on several occasions in both locations.