Measuring Livelihood Resilience in Ecologically Fragile Regions: An Entropy-Obstacle Diagnosis of Forest Farmers in Northern China

Ecologically fragile regions face the dual challenge of environmental conservation and improving rural livelihoods. Forest-dependent households are especially exposed to ecological restoration constraints, market fluctuations, and limited institutional access. This study develops a micro-level diagnostic framework that combines the Sustainable Livelihood Framework with resilience theory by adding a risk-resilience dimension to the conventional five-capital structure. Using survey data from 444 forest-farmer households in Songshan District, Inner Mongolia, we calculate livelihood resilience with the entropy-weight method, classify household profiles with K-means clustering, and diagnose constraints with an obstacle-degree model. The mean resilience score is 0.6267, indicating a relatively strong but uneven resilience level. Livelihood risk resilience (0.7476) and financial capital resilience (0.6797) are the strongest dimensions, whereas human capital resilience (0.3521) and physical capital resilience (0.4099) remain weak. The main obstacles are relationships with village cadres (29.66%), household savings (16.25%), livestock and poultry assets (14.70%), village road conditions (13.23%), relationships with relatives and friends (10.99%), and corporate/cooperative assistance effects (6.88%). The findings support targeted interventions in linking social capital, savings capacity, infrastructure, and enterprise-farmer cooperation.