Shengtai anquan: managing tourism and environment in China's forest parks

Abstract

Protected area management agencies worldwide face a continuing dilemma over the role of tourism and recreation (Buckley 2009; Schmitt et al. 2009). Most parks face external threats from invasive species, illegal use, fire, and pollution. Parks agencies need funds to manage these threats, and governments require them to raise part of their revenue from visitors, who also create impacts. Parks agencies, therefore, balance internal threats from increased recreation, against its role in contributing funds and political capital to counter external threats. Recreation can include commercial tourism operations, and in some public lands this may include large-scale fixed-site facilities, such as ski resorts on US Forests Service land (Buckley 2009a, b).