The Future of Community-Based Ecotourism (CBET) in China’s Protected Areas: A Consistent Optimal Scenario for Multiple Stakeholders

Abstract

Community-based ecotourism (CBET) has become a popular strategy to alleviate the contradiction between ecological protection and community development. As the stakeholders of CBET, the community’s participation in the planning process is of great importance to in order to realize the sustainability of CBET. Taking a community in Wolong Nature Reserve as a case study, in this study we developed a decision-making participation mechanism based on the participatory scenario method. Through this mechanism, community stakeholders can effectively reach consensus with other stakeholders on the planning of CBET in the future. The results showed that community participation in the planning process can mean decisions are more likely to reflect their interests. They unanimously proposed that future CBET must adhere to the basic principle of protecting biodiversity and must maximize the welfare of the community. Moreover, achieving the sustainability of CBET in protected areas requires the cooperation of all stakeholders.

Keywords

• protected area
• community-based ecotourism
• community participation
• participatory scenario