Identifying effective transformations to reduce poverty and approach rural sustainability is at the core of the first sustainable development goal of the United Nations. This article offers scientific support for continued efforts in sustaining rural development and livelihood resilience. Many studies have examined drivers of livelihood transition from farming to non-farm activities, especially participation in tourism against the backdrop of rural tourism development. However, few studies have identified ways to measure the level of tourism participation or have discussed how household-level capital influences decisions regarding tourism participation made by Tibetan ethnic households. This article assesses the role of livelihood capital in the adoption of tourism activities at the household level in Jiaju Tibetan Village, an ethnic region that is experiencing struggling agricultural business and developing tourism sector. Using household survey data, this study presents an ordinal logistic regression model to identify the determinants of the household tourism participation level. The results showed that households’ tourism participation was influenced by physical capital (e.g., proximity to major roads, odds ratio = 2.83 at p = 0.024; fixed capitals, odds ratio = 101.19 at p = 0.039), human capital (e.g., availability of family labor, odds ratio = 0.25 at p = 0.004; availability of skilled member, odds ratio = 2.91 at p = 0.002), and social capital (e.g., relatives in governmental sectors, odds ratio = 5.22 at p = 0.044; government payments, odds ratio = 8.78 at p = 0.04), while the influence of financial capital was not significant. The proximity to major roads, availability of skilled members, fixed assets, and direct and indirect support from the government to households were significantly and positively associated with tourism participation level. The effects of household labor availability and annual family income remain unclear. Overall, household livelihood capital plays a critical role in the enhancement of tourism participation in Jiaju Tibetan Village. Our findings have implications for understanding the shift of on-farm occupation to off-farm activities in tourism and for the pursuit of policies contributing to poverty reduction and rural revitalization in China as well as to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Ecosystem services (ES) are benefits people receive from nature. To sustain these benefits, we need to spatially connect communities benefitting from specific ES with landscape features that generate the ES. A variety of process‐based models support ES assessments by estimating the biophysical supply of ES that comes from landscapes. However, less attention has been given to how ES flow from landscapes to beneficiary groups. A ‘serviceshed’ is defined as the spatial area that provides an ecosystem service to beneficiaries at a specific location—thus connecting people to the landscapes and seascapes upon which they depend through ES flows. In this article, we propose a general framework to empirically define serviceshed boundaries. Using publicly available data, we apply this framework to two provisioning and two regulating services (1) agricultural and fishing livelihoods and (2) pollination and coastal flood control, respectively, in Canada. We find that agricultural fields of different types and sizes contribute livelihood value to 85% of the communities in the agricultural landscape, and fishing grounds of different sizes contribute to 24% of the communities in the fishing study area. On average, communities with a lower proportion of agricultural labour are associated with larger fields, whilst larger fishing grounds were associated with communities with a greater percentage of their population in fisheries, showing how different ES can have varied relationships with beneficiary communities. For regulating services, we find 66% of pollinator‐supplying areas are within the serviceshed of farming communities. Natural habitats and agricultural land account for 72% and 28% of this serviceshed area, respectively. Our models suggest also that 26% of saltmarshes are within the serviceshed of flood‐prone communities and most coastal communities in our study area benefit from saltmarshes, especially from those without dykes. We demonstrate how serviceshed mapping, when integrating social and ecological information, can be useful in multiple decision contexts. Servicesheds can help planners and managers better design zoning restrictions, restoration activities to benefit communities, or subsidy programmes to replace the value of ES lost due to climate change or land use development. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Driven by unusually warm air in the Arctic, severe winter weather moves down south to mid-latitude areas, reflecting the complexity in the ways that climate change may affect local weather extremes. Food and agriculture have been identified as central to global efforts to adapt to climate change. However, research is notably lacking in understanding the vulnerability of farming communities to winter storms that are recognized as one of catastrophic events leading to agricultural damage and loss. This study focuses on mapping the interplay of social and physical factors (e.g. building age, farm-related income, education level, access to farming facilities) that differentiate Iowa farming communities with unequal vulnerability. Semi-structured interview was used in this study to identify the determinants of vulnerability of farming communities to winter storms. Incorporating spatial analysis and factor analysis, this study quantified the effects of physical factors on the sensitivity and exposure of winter storms, and prioritized primary livelihood capitals that determine the adaptive capacity to winter storms. Current results have demonstrated the vulnerability patterns of farming communities to winter storms shaped under varying societal-physical environments and weather conditions. This research shows implications in livelihood pathways to transforming adaptations to vulnerability reduction.