Effects of Rural Tourism on the Livelihood of Poor Farmers from the Perspective of Social-Ecosystem Vulnerability: A Case Study of Beixi Village, Yongchun County, Fujian Province

From the perspective of the vulnerability of social-ecological systems and regarding the rural tourism destination as the local social-ecological system, the development process of rural tourism in Beixi Village, Yongchun County, Fujian Province, was reviewed with sustainable livelihood framework, the impact of tourism development on the livelihood of farmers and the adaptive livelihood strategies adopted were analyzed, and the livelihood capital and livelihood vulnerability of peasant households were qualitatively evaluated.The main conclusions included:(1) the rural tourism had changed the traditional ways of farmers' livelihood in Beixi.The farmers' livelihood capital achieved improvement overall, but showed obvious substitution effect; (2) Due to the control loss of tourism resources, the local social-ecological system were suffering the external shocks generated by the intrinsic cyclical fluctuation of tourism industry, and the vulnerability of farmers' livelihood had been increased; (3) The impact of tourism on the farmers' livelihood contained more threat than opportunity, and the differences of farmers' adaptability induced the heterogeneity of the livelihood structures.Therefore the effects of rural tourism on farmers' livelihood depends on their adaptability, which needs the government to supply good institutional environments and supporting measures to enhance the farmers' adaptability to the disturbance of tourism and to reduce the vulnerability of farmers' livelihood.