Understanding livelihood vulnerability: a perspective from Western Sichuan's ethnic rural settings

To explore the livelihood status and key influencing factors of rural households in the minority areas, we collected flat data from 284 rural households in 32 villages across 12 counties of Western Sichuan from 2021 to 2022. We conducted participatory household survey on the livelihood status of the rural households and try to identify the key factors to influence their livelihood vulnerability using multiple linear regression. The results showed that: the livelihood situation of the rural households is relatively vulnerable. The vulnerability varies significantly with the income levels, education levels, and income sources. The vulnerability of farm households, categorized from low to high livelihood types, follows the sequence: non-agricultural dominant households, non-agricultural households, agricultural dominant households, and pure agricultural households. The degree of damage to the natural environment, education costs, loan opportunities, the proportion of agricultural income to annual household income, and the presence of sick people in the household have significant positive effects on the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) of rural households; while help from relatives and friends, net income per capita, household size, household education, agricultural land area, participation in industrial organizations, number of livestock, purchase of commercial houses, drinking water source, and self-supply of food have significant negative effects. Based on the findings, we believe that local rural households operate in a complex livelihood system and recommend continuous interventions targeting key influences to provide empirical research support for areas facing similar situations.