The Sustainable Livelihoods approach is a holistic and flexible framework for understanding, measuring, and analyzing poverty and poverty alleviation strategies. As ecotourism both protects nature and benefits communities, it has frequently been used to alleviate conflict between nature reserves and the livelihood of community residents. This paper examines the effectiveness of the ecotourism strategy in promoting sustainable livelihoods in a nature reserve area, by assessing the livelihood outcomes brought about by ecotourism as well as the livelihood assets that can be used for ecotourism.Based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the sustainable livelihoods framework, this paper used two evaluation index systems; one of which measured the livelihood outcomes of the ecotourism strategy, while the other measured the livelihood assets that can be used to engage in tourism. The criteria used to construct the livelihood outcome index consists of five components (greater income, increased well-being, reduced vulnerability, improved food security, more sustainable use of natural resources), while the criteria used to construct the livelihood assets index considers human capital, social capital, natural capital, physical capital and financial capital. Each index has a priority value, which is set using the Delphi method, with 16 experts being involved in the determination of this value.The two index systems were applied to a case study in the Wangjiazhai community within the Baiyangdian Wetland Nature Reserve in Hebei Province, China. The livelihood outcomes of households within the study area were assessed using questionnaires and interviews, with a focus on the differences between households whose livelihoods involve tourism and those that do not. The results show that: (1) the average score of the livelihood outcomes of the households whose livelihoods involve tourism is approximately 57.7; (2) the livelihood assets of the households whose livelihoods involve no tourism differed from one another, thus leading to an uneven, irregular and shrinking livelihood capital pentagon.The results show that community-based ecotourism as a livelihood strategy has produced a significant effect on livelihoods in WangJiazhai, but that there is still room for improvement, as demonstrated by the following: (1) the ‘greater income’ criteria in the livelihood outcome index has a lower score for households engaged in ecotourism than average, due to the low percentage of tourism revenue as a fraction of total household income; (2) ecotourism confers a relatively high score in the‘increased well-being’criteria; (3) the index scores for the ecotourism-active households in terms of ‘reduced vulnerability’are close to the average; (4) ecotourism confers the highest scores for ‘improved food security’; (5) the contribution of ecotourism to the‘more sustainable use of natural resources’is not obvious, as this criteria had the lowest score overall. Furthermore, the irregular and shrinking livelihood capital pentagon suggests that ecotourism is a sustainable community livelihoods strategy, but that limiting factors still remain.In conclusion: (1) at present tourism does not fulfill its potential in terms of rational income distribution between stakeholders, improving the quality of community facilities and services, and environmental education for community residents; (2) the participation of community residents in tourism is restricted, due to the shortage of financial, human, and social assets.