Abstract:

Livelihood strategy is an activity based on livelihood capital for people to pursue and improve their livelihood goals, and the interaction between livelihood strategy and ecological environment plays an important role in the evolution of human land system. This paper studies the transformation of herdsmen's livelihood strategy and its impact on the ecological environment in Badain Jaran Desert, which has poor natural resources, inconvenient transportation and fragile ecological environment. The results show that there is a significant difference in the livelihood capital value of herdsmen in Badain Jaran Desert, the lowest is social capital (0.1344) and the highest is financial capital (0.4528). The livelihood strategies of herdsmen in Badain Jaran Desert can be divided into pure grazing strategies, grazing-dominant strategies, non-grazing-dominant strategies, and non-grazing strategies. The livelihood strategies of herdsmen in Badain Jaran Desert have undergone a significant transformation, and the number of pure grazing strategies and grazing-dominant strategies have decreased significantly, the non-grazing-dominant strategies, and non-grazing strategies have increased significantly. The key livelihood capital influencing the transformation of livelihood strategy was different in different periods, but financial basis, human capital and social capital were always important factors influencing the transformation of livelihood strategy of herdsmen in Badain Jaran Desert. The transformation of livelihood strategy for herdsmen in Badain Jaran Desert had significant impact on ecological environment, and vegetation coverage increased significantly. But the transformation of livelihood strategy caused the nomadic tourism risen rapidly, and the self-driving travel has seriously damaged the desert vegetation and increased the amount of desert garbage.

Key words: livelihood capital, livelihood strategy transformation, ecological environment, Badain Jaran Desert