This work aims to answer the following research question: To what extent does community-based ecotourism contribute to securing peoples livelihoods and improving local standards of living in rural poverty-stricken areas around Three Parallel Rivers? To answer this question, the author analyses community-based ecotourism through the notions of community participation and social capital, advocated by both international and Chinese development experts as a form of self-empowerment and the basis of sustainable development, and integrated in particular ways in the new policy of New Socialist...