Non-Consumptive Wildlife Tourism and Community-Based Conservation: a Case Study in Yunnan, China
Non-consumptive wildlife tourism and community-based conservation: A case study in Yunnan, China
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Environment and Natural Resources in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University
By Xiao Liu, B.S.
The Ohio State University 2013
MENR Project Committee: Dr. Jeremy Bruskotter, Advisor Dr. Stacey Fineran Dr. Eric Toman
Abstract
Wildlife tourism is a specialized, yet important, aspect of the tourism market. It has been heralded as a way to secure sustainable economic benefits while supporting wildlife conservation and local communities. To protect the various unique wildlife species, including Yunnan Golden Monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti), and improve the livelihoods for local communities, the Natural Conservancy and Chinese partners launched a series of protection projects in Three Parallel Rivers Area in Yunnan province. To create sustainable ecotourism is one of the most important targets for these projects. Although there are many studies focused on ecotourism in protected areas in China, few of them discuss the status of wildlife tourism and the associated benefits it can bring to the participating communities in China’s protected areas. This report evaluates the status and value of non-consumptive wildlife tourism and found possible approaches to implement community based wildlife tourism in Laojun Mountain National Park. Key informant interviews, secondary data, and survey questionnaires were used as research tools to examine the local attitudes towards wildlife protection, tourists preference for wildlife tourism, and potential targeted ecotourists. The study results reveal that non-consumptive wildlife tourism development in China is still in the early stage and semi-captive wildlife tourism is currently the main form of wildlife tourism development in China, especially for primate tourism. Moreover, due to misunderstanding the meaning of ecotourism and driven by
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Environment and Natural Resources in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University
By Xiao Liu, B.S.
The Ohio State University 2013
MENR Project Committee: Dr. Jeremy Bruskotter, Advisor Dr. Stacey Fineran Dr. Eric Toman
Abstract
Wildlife tourism is a specialized, yet important, aspect of the tourism market. It has been heralded as a way to secure sustainable economic benefits while supporting wildlife conservation and local communities. To protect the various unique wildlife species, including Yunnan Golden Monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti), and improve the livelihoods for local communities, the Natural Conservancy and Chinese partners launched a series of protection projects in Three Parallel Rivers Area in Yunnan province. To create sustainable ecotourism is one of the most important targets for these projects. Although there are many studies focused on ecotourism in protected areas in China, few of them discuss the status of wildlife tourism and the associated benefits it can bring to the participating communities in China’s protected areas. This report evaluates the status and value of non-consumptive wildlife tourism and found possible approaches to implement community based wildlife tourism in Laojun Mountain National Park. Key informant interviews, secondary data, and survey questionnaires were used as research tools to examine the local attitudes towards wildlife protection, tourists preference for wildlife tourism, and potential targeted ecotourists. The study results reveal that non-consumptive wildlife tourism development in China is still in the early stage and semi-captive wildlife tourism is currently the main form of wildlife tourism development in China, especially for primate tourism. Moreover, due to misunderstanding the meaning of ecotourism and driven by
References: 2. Classification of wildlife tourism Wildlife tourism is defined as “Tourism based on encounters with non-domesticated (non-human) animals” (Higginbottom, 2004) Figure 1 Wildlife based tourism (Reynolds and Braithwaite, 2000). Figure 2 The spectrum of tourist-wildlife interaction opportunities (Orams, 1996). 2.3 Importance of non-consumptive wildlife tourism NCWT is an important segment of tourism and has grown rapidly in many countries in recent decades (Field, 2001) Figure 4 A conceptual model of the responses of wildlife to disturbance (Knight & Cole, 1995). Table 1 Access disturbance of wildlife tourism (Leung & Marion,1999).