Problems in developing ecotourism in China

Although it is theoretically sound to develop ecotourism in China, where ecotourism has made certain achievements, in reality the theory and the practice seems to come apart, which makes it difficult for ecotourism to fulfill its potential roles. Currently, there exists a large amount of literature that focuses on discussing the practical problems existing in developing ecotourism in China, many of which share similar views.

Firstly, ecotourism is criticised for not contributing to environmental conservation; instead, it tends towards the destruction of natural environments. Specifically, the majority of tourists lack adequate ecotourism consciousness with low levels of appreciation for protecting the environment, which leads to environmental deterioration (Song, 2003). For example, tramping of surface soil and vegetation and other movements of tourists (e.g. removal of flora and fauna) can lead to soil compacting or erosion; meanwhile the breeding and activities of wildlife will also be negatively impacted (Han & Ren, 2001; Tisdell, 1996). The inappropriate disposal of

waste and rubbish is another kind of unpleasant behaviour practised by tourists that can pose a threat to the environment (Tisdell, 1996).

Not only tourists, but also local people, play a part in the increasing environmental damage. Driven by the current short-term economic profit, local people sometimes pilfer and sell locally precious and rare animal or plant resources, which leads to irreversible damage to the ecosystem (Hou, 2006). Taking two protected areas of Hainan as the example, Stone and Wall (2003) observed that local people had high levels of dependence on natural resources, and there were occasions of illegal resource harvesting practised by some residents, due to the fact that ecotourism had reduced residents’ access to protected areas and led those who previously made a living from resource-based industries to lose their jobs.

The lack of unified planning in ecotourism development is recognised as another cause of environmental problems. The management of nature reserves has lagged far behind the expansion of the numbers of reserves. Problems like developing ecotourism without working out any detailed plans, or mapping out plans but not implementing them properly has been identified by Song (2003). In addition, both Tisdell (1996) and Young (2006) consider the massive infrastructure construction (e.g. building massive accommodation or constructing roads) and improper tourist management, as significant factors that contribute to the negative impact on the environment. For example, in the cases of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park and Jiuzhaigou, mass construction gave rise to water pollution, and has cost local governments 10 hundred million Yuan and 300 million Yuan respectively to restore the original scenery (Young, 2006).

Another example is the overloading of tourists, which is also linked with inappropriate tourist management, such as lack of regulation of tourists’ numbers. This poses tremendous challenges to the environment, such as through increasing use of motorised transport, especially during the peak periods (Lindberg et al, 1997).

This is when the number of tourists overweighs the natural environment’s carrying capacity. Consequently, this leads to reduction of the living space of biodiversity, destruction of the beautiful scenery and the ecosystem balance, and ultimately a reduction in the tourists’ interest (Tisdell, 1996).

Lindberg et al. (1997) further explore the underlying causes of poor management more in depth and argue that there are different actors involved in ecotourism practice, with inconsistent interests that are difficult to keep in harmony. For instance, industry is always interested in maximising profits, even at the cost of environmental destruction; hence, it prefers to increase visitation beyond the acceptable level of protected areas (Lindberg et al., 1997). In many cases, local government agencies can benefit from increased visitation. Accordingly, it becomes hard for protected area managers, who have limited economic power and ability, to restrict the number of tourists and associated infrastructure development (Lindberg et al., 1997).

Secondly, ecotourism is criticised as being used merely as a label to increase interest and sales. As mentioned above, many enterprises target ecotourism to maximise its monetary benefits, sacrificing natural environmental protection (Wen & Tisdell, 2001). Moreover, ecotourism development is noted also as lacking local people’s participation. As has been discussed in Chapter 2, in order to maximise local benefits, ecotourism requires high levels of local participation. It can be seen that this does not characterise ecotourism in China at present, since the state-led development focuses on increasing satisfaction, rather than empowering people to take full participation in the whole process of ecotourism development. Hou (2006) argues that local communities are only involved in limited tourism related activities, such as providing room and board, or selling souvenirs. Such activities cannot usually bring sufficient benefits to the local people.

Similarly, Stone and Wall (2003) found that the local residents were excluded from participating in the processes of planning and decision-making, by using the two

protected areas in Hainan as an example. Consequently, ecotourism in Hainan failed to generate socioeconomic benefits for the local people or for conservation (Stone & Wall, 2003). Further, many protected areas are managed by tourist departments, which leads to less benefits being generated for local people than expected (Hou, 2006). As a result, this will reduce the local people’s enthusiasm to improve tourist conditions. However, this is not always the case, such as the exception in Jiuzhaigou biosphere reserve in Sichuan province, China, where ecotourism was found largely to be contributing to the improvement of local people’s well-being, in terms of livelihoods, choice, and social cultural belonging (Dombroski, 2005).

The third practical problem of ecotourism development in China concerns lack of adequate attention to environmental education as an integral part of its role (Tisdell, 1996). This problem is identified as closely related with the absence of qualified tourist guides and managers in managing and developing ecotourism (Han & Ren, 2001). Tisdell (1996) draws on his case study in Yunnan to support this point by arguing that the local tourist guides were largely found with poor professional training and inferior interpretative skills. Therefore, ecotourism will fail to fulfill one of its core functions of educating tourists and enhancing the public’s consciousness about natural conservation, which, consequently, largely reduces the opportunity of ecotourism to generate funding for protection. Lindberg et al. (1997) further link the causes of the shortage of qualified staff with lack of funding and the remoteness of natural reserves.

Finally, the shortage of money to fund natural reserves is recognized as another serious challenge facing ecotourism in China. Since China is a developing country with minimal funds, the government has failed to invest large sums of money in nature reserves. This problem is also identified by 67.1 percent of the nature reserves as the main problem facing development of ecotourism (Han & Ren, 2001).