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Running Head: INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW

Local Residents’ Attitudes towards Ecotourism and Conservation in National Parks:

a Case Study of the National Park for Amur Tiger and Amur Leopard in China

Introduction

Protected area is known as an effective way to achieve long-term conservation of nature. National park system is one category of the protected areas that not only is good for natural conservation but also can contributing to people’s livelihoods, especially at the local level. It takes into account the needs of residents and local communities, who could influence the management and efficiency of the park. Aiming to protect China’s large natural ecosystems, the central government of this country unveiled the overall plan for establishing its new national park system in 2017 in order to achieve a combination of ecological protection and sustainable development. Therefore, in China various measures need to be done at the local level, and it is

also important to understand residents in national park, who might be great power in establishing the new system.

Literature Review

There has been some research conducted to study current situations of protected areas to examine the necessity of a well-established national park system in China or to find

environmental attitudes and behaviors of local residents in protected areas in different countries (Imran, Alam, & Beaumont, 2014; Sirivongs & Tsuchiya, 2012; Xu et al., 2017; Yuan, Dai, & Wang, 2008) Xu et al. (2017) investigated China’s protected areas on biodiversity and ecosystem services. They put forward four key regulating services of ecosystem: water retention, soil retention, sandstorm prevention, and carbon sequestration. They found that though China’s

natural reserves have involved 15.1% of the nation’s land territory, these reserves just include 10.2-12.5% of the source areas for the four key regulating services. This also indicated an uneven spatial distribution. They believed that national park system would be a good solution to these situations. Apart from national park establishment, some studies also indicate that local support cannot be neglected because residents are a part of the national parks. Yuan, Dai, and Wang (2008) conducted their study in China, observing that some factors like income from collections of forest products and migrant labor led to residents’ negative attitudes towards the conservation at reserves and pointing out that low level of education and low benefits made it hard for ecotourism to get support from residents. On the contrary, Sirivongs and Tsuchiya’s (2012) study conducted in Lao People's Democratic Republic found out that more than half of

the residents were very positive about a national park, and they perceived some benefits like an increase in public security and income generation from the park, which significantly influenced their attitude and participation. Imran, Alam and Beaumont (2014) carried out their study in Pakistan and investigated the factors that affected residents’ environmental orientations, reporting that awareness and information, governance structure, and resource usage rights also impacted people’s intention to participate in pro-environmental behavior. Although some research has been conducted to explore the environmental attitudes and behaviors of residents or stakeholders in protected areas among many countries, few studies have been done on the

national parks system in China.

Hence, the purpose of this report is three-fold 1) to find out local residents’ attitudes

towards ecotourism and conservation in national parks; 2) to investigate the factors that could influence their attitudes and behaviors and 3) to discuss how to get support from residents to build sustainable tourism as well as a good relationship with those residents in China’s national parks. Such information may bring some practical suggestions for local government to make decisions on national park area policies and regulations. It may also assist travel agencies, related organizations and companies to have a better understanding on residents’ actual needs to develop ecotourism programs and sustainable tourism business in national park areas that could bring mutual benefits.

References

Imran, S., Alam, K., & Beaumont, N. (2014). Environmental orientations and environmental

behavior: Perceptions of protected area tourism stakeholders. Tourism Management, 40,

290-299.

Sirivongs, K., & Tsuchiya, T. (2012). Relationship between local residents' perceptions, attitudes

and participation towards national protected areas: A case study of Phou Khao Khouay

National Protected Area, central Lao PDR. Forest Policy and Economics, 21, 92–100.

Xu, W., Xiao, Y., Zhang, J., Yang, W., Zhang, L., Hull, V., …Ouyang, Z. (2017). Strengthening

protected areas for biodiversity and ecosystem services in China. Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(7), 1601-1606.

Yuan, J., Dai, L., & Wang, Q. (2008). State-Led Ecotourism Development and Nature

Conservation: A Case Study of the Changbai Mountain Biosphere Reserve, China. Ecology

and Society, 13(2), 55.

*not all references shown in example