Abstract: The behavior and experience of labor transfer has produced complex and profound impact on the means of livelihood of poor farmers or herdsman,which constitutes the background and prerequisites for left-behind households in selecting new livelihood strategies.With a background of capital change and factors constraints,farmers and herdsmen have conducted different production decisions and formed different types of livelihood strategies in the western ethnic region which is the ecologically vulnerable area.Traditionally,farmers and herdsmen in this region conduct single livelihood approach based on animal husbandry,which leads to great instability on livelihood of farmers.After taking Gannan pastoral area,Gansu Province,China,as an example and analyzing characteristic variables with labor transferring and summarizing typical livelihood strategy modes for transferring households,this paper quantitatively measures the influential mechanism of transferring on the selection of livelihood strategies and draws relevant conclusions by use of Multiple Logistic Regression model.The results showed that the educational level of migrant labor force,the period and orientation of migration and type of work have influenced the choice of livelihood strategies for the left-behind farmers and herdsmen.In general the higher educational level of the migrant labor force is,the easier it is to use strategy of "non-agricultural and self-employed" instead of "livestock breeding".The longer they've been out doing the migrant work,the easier it is for them to use ‘livestock breeding’ and ‘economic crop cultivation’ instead of ‘non-agricultural and self-employed’ to make a living.If the transfer of labor is happened in Gannan territory,left-behind farmers and herdsmen tend to choose ‘animal husbandry’ as their livelihood source;If the transfer of labor force is happened out of Gannan territory,left-behind farmers and herdsmen tend to choose ‘non-agricultural and self-employed’.The type of transferring for migrant labor is a significant factor determining the choice of ‘non-agricultural and self-employed’.That is to say,the labor are more prone to conduct in construction and service industry,left-behind farmers and herdsmen are less likely to use ‘non-agricultural and self-employed’ to survive.It could provide reference to formulate scientific,reasonable and sustainable labor-resources usage policy and to promote sustainable development of livelihood for farmers in western ethnic areas.

Key words: transferring of Labor, sustainable livelihood, livelihood strategy, Gannan pastoral area