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Study On Community-based Forest Eco-tourism In Wuyishan Nature Reserve

Posted on:2009-10-31Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:J H GuoFull Text:PDF
GTID:1119360272484735Subject:Forest management
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Forest eco-tourism industry emerged in the early 1980s in China, nearly 20 years later than in the developed countries but with a rapid development. It is estimated that the number of forest tourists in China will reach 400,000,000 people till 2020.With the excellent natural resources, nature reserve becomes a good base to carry out forest eco-tourism. According to the survey, 82 out of 100 provincial-level nature reserves have carried out tourism programs. Eco-tourism not only provided part of fund for conservancy, but also promoted the development of local communities. However, the survey about the eco-tourism income distribution by The International Eco-tourism Society (TIES) indicated that local residents have benefited little in tourism.Considering the above problems in the operation of forest eco-tourism in nature reserve, some researches were carried out in Wuyishan National Nature Reserve (WYS N.R.), which is typical in china, with Many methods used, such as the literature research, residents interviews, case studies, and statistics analysis. The major achievements are as follows:(1) A thorough research, quantitative evaluation and classification of tourist resources was carried out in WYS N.R. Regarding to the development of forest eco-tourism in china, a public forest eco-tourism products, transitional forest eco-tourism products and advanced forest eco-tourism products were designed. Eco-tourism space layout was planned again which concerned more on the community interests.(2) On the basis of the main stakeholders, the existing problems about business investment model and benefits distribution model in forest eco-tourism in WYS N.R., new business model was suggested: multi-joint-stock cooperative enterprise operates the forest eco-tourist resources, the formation of individual communities operate tourist catering and accommodation, and foreign companies carry out the tourism product development with participation of community residents. The reasonable benefits distribution model should be composed of incomes of joint-stock cooperative benefit, ecological compensation and other personal income.(3) In order to make sure community residents' perception of eco-tourism in WYS N.R Likert-style questionnaire were designed and carried out. survey showed that residents of the different sex, age, occupation, education level, income levels have different perceptions on forest eco-tourism. Results of the fuzzy clustering showed that active supporters are mostly made of the young people with middle high school education; and high-income, highly educated people tend to support with the rational attitude, low-income and poorly educated farmers and the elderly keep indifferent toward to eco-tourism for short of opportunity to take part in.(4) The dynamic assessment system of community-based forest eco-tourism were established, and the evaluation criteria were built. Example test of the system showed that WYS N.R. is still at the mid-level stage of the Sustainable development in forest eco-tourism, with the obvious advantages of tourist resources, but short of community participation, which will make great improvement in the future.The key problems during the operation of forest eco-tourism in WYS N.R were investigated and discussed in the study. Results of study provide reverences for the operation of forest eco-tourism, and finally contribute to the sustainable of forest eco-tourism in nature reserves.
Keywords/Search Tags:forest eco-tourism, community, participation, Wuyishan Nature Reserve
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