Development paths of people’s sustainable livelihood based on climate change: a case study of Yunnan minority areas

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCCSM-01-2023-0003
• Published date: 07 April 2023
• Date: 07 April 2023
• Pages: 432-455
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Environmental issues,Climate change
• Author: Jiaxin Wu,Lei Liu,Hongjuan Yang

Development paths of people’s

sustainable livelihood based on

climate change: a case study of

Yunnan minority areas

Jiaxin Wu

Faculty of Management and Economics,

Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China

Lei Liu

Informatization Construction Management Center,

Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China, and

Hongjuan Yang

Faculty of Management and Economics,

Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China

Abstract

Purpose –This study aims to evaluatethe characteristics of climate change in Yunnan minority areasand

identifyan effective path to promote sustainable livelihoodsbased on climate change.

Design/methodology/approach –Taking Yunnan Provinceas an example, based on the expansion of

the traditional sustainable livelihoodframework, the authors constructed a system dynamics (SD) model of

sustainable livelihoodfrom the six subsystems of natural, physical, financial, social, human and cultural and

tested the accuracy and effectiveness of the model with data from Cangyuan County. By adjusting these

parameters,five development pathsare designed to simulate the future situation of the livelihood system and

determinethe optimal path.

Findings –Climate change has exacerbated the vulnerability of people’s livelihoods. In future, each of the

five developmentpaths will be advantageous for promoting sustainable livelihoods.However, compared with

Path I (maintaining the status quo), Path III (path of giving priority to culture)and Path IV (path of giving

priority to economic development)have more obvious advantages. Path II (path of giving priorityto people’s

lives) gradually increases the developmentrate by promoting people’s endogenous motivation, and Path V

(path of coordinateddevelopment) is better than the other paths becauseof its more balanced consideration.

Originality/value –The analytical framework of sustainablelivelihoods based on the characteristics of

minority areas is broadened. By constructing a SD model of the livelihood system, the limitations of

traditional staticanalysis have been overcome and a development pathfor promoting sustainable livelihoods

through simulation is proposed. This study offers a theoretical framework and reference method for

© Jiaxin Wu, Lei Liu and Hongjuan Yang. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is

published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce,

distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-

commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full

terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Statements and declarations: The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any

material discussed in this article.

Funding: This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers

72064025] and the Ministry of Education Planning Fund [grant numbers 20XJA630002].

IJCCSM

15,3

432

Received6 January 2023

Revised6 February 2023

16February 2023

Accepted2 March 2023

InternationalJournal of Climate

ChangeStrategies and

Management

Vol.15 No. 3, 2023

pp. 432-455

EmeraldPublishing Limited

1756-8692

DOI 10.1108/IJCCSM-01-2023-0003

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/1756-8692.htm

livelihoodresearch against the backdrop of climate changeand a decision-making basis for enhancingclimate

adaptabilityand realizing sustainable livelihoods.

Keywords Climate change, Livelihood vulnerability, Sustainable livelihood,

System dynamics model, Path of coordinated development

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Climatic conditions are the sum of the temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, solar

radiation and other atmospheric elements and their changes. Climate change usually lasts

for decades or longer and posesa major threat to the safety of people’s lives and property. Its

adverse consequences have raised worldwide concern (Ani et al.,2022), particularly in

developing countries (Chandio et al., 2022a,2022b). Specifically, climate change has

considerably impacted the utilization of natural resources, infrastructure construction,

income increases, people’s participation in social organizations, health and education and

cultural heritage (Adger et al., 2005). Climate change has led to an increase in extreme

weather events. The negative effects of extreme climate are more severe than those of

general climate change,and as such, they have drawn the attention of academic researchers

and policymakers (Meehl et al.,2000;Easterling et al., 2000). The human society is gradually

becoming vulnerable to climate change, which is not conducive to maintaining social

stability and sustainable benefits (He et al.,2021). As climate change and extreme climate

phenomena continue, their impacts will expand. Hence, research on climate change should

consider not only the ecological environment but also local cultural traditions, economic

development, social welfare, culture and education, among other broad areas (Aryal et al.,

2018).

Earlier studies have discussed the impact of climate change on farmers’planting

strategies (Wu et al.,2021),biodiversity (Zhu et al., 2015), transportation infrastructure(Kim

and Li, 2020), financial stability (Liuet al., 2021), tourism income increase (Leal Filho, 2022),

human security and development (Ani et al.,2022), death and injury rates and social

psychological pressure (Cheng et al.,2010), social cooperation networks (Ofoegbu and New,

2021), cultural responses (Garai et al., 2022) and other fields. These studies cover natural,

physical, financial, social,human and cultural categories that are directly related to people’s

lives. However, these studies tended to focus on a single area and failed to discuss the

impact of climate change on people’s livelihoods. In addition, although the impact can be

evaluated, the simulation and control function of future development trends based on the

background of climate changeare weak; thus, it is difficult to find problems in the process of

livelihood development and then propose a specific path for sustainable livelihood

development. The definition of livelihood was first proposed by Robert Chambers, who

believed that it was a way to makea living based on assets, capabilities and activities. When

people are faced with pressure and disasters, if they can restore, maintain or even improve

their assets and provide the following generation with more opportunities to survive and

flourish, their livelihoods can be considered sustainable (Natarajan et al.,2022). The

sustainable livelihood theory assumesthat people live in vulnerable backgrounds and have

multiple livelihood capitals. Different livelihood strategies are formed by adopting distinct

ways of livelihood capital combination and utilization, thereby showing differentiated

livelihood outputs (Natarajan et al., 2022). With the development of sustainable livelihood

theory, several organizations have developed sustainable livelihood frameworks with

various focuses. The sustainable livelihood framework established by the UK Department

People’s

sustainable

livelihood

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