Household livelihood resilience and natural resource dependence: Understanding their relationship for rural China’s disaster resettlement

• Disaster resettlement has been adopted as a crucial way to improve household livelihood in rural China. • We test the relationship between household livelihood resilience and natural resource dependence (NRD). • Household livelihood resilience has a positive effect on NRD. • The livelihood resilience and NRD of relocated households is lower than the non-relocated households. • The NRD for households in centralized resettlement and voluntary relocation is notably lower than for those in scattered resettlement and involuntary relocation. Disaster resettlement has been a crucial tactic in improving household livelihoods and has achieved remarkable results in rural China. Household livelihood resilience and natural resource dependence (NRD) are vital factors in formulating rural development strategies in developing countries and regions. Understanding the relationship between these is necessary to alleviate stress on existing resources and foster livelihood development. Drawing on survey data from 657 households in Ankang Prefecture, southern Shaanxi Province, China, our study assesses household livelihood resilience and NRD. We explore the impact of household livelihood resilience on NRD with ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Household livelihood resilience is positively associated with NRD. Relocated households exhibit lower NRD compared to those that have not been relocated. Centralized resettlement significantly reduces NRD through large-scale support for infrastructure and with unified policies; scattered resettlement retains the original community network, but the reduction in NRD is limited. Voluntary relocation households can quickly adapt to non-agricultural livelihoods, resulting in the lowest NRD, while involuntary relocation leads to higher NRD and lagging recovery. Therefore, the government should prioritize implementing voluntary and centralized resettlement programs. Although this research focuses on Ankang Prefecture and provides valuable insights for other resource-dependent regions, its generalizability may be limited by the data’s regional scope.