Understanding Residents’ Perceptions of the Ecosystem to Improve Park–People Relationships in Wuyishan National Park, China

Abstract

A healthy park–people relationship depends essentially on the fair and sustainable maintenance of rural livelihood. When a protected area is designated, rural people may face restrictions on access to land and resource use. In Wuyishan of China, we analyzed the role of traditional tea cultivation during consistent protected area management to find ways to maintain the stability of this social-ecological system in the new national park era. Based on the social-ecological system meaning perception, we used an intensive social survey to investigate residents’ perception of the ecosystem in terms of tea cultivation and its interaction with conservation policies. Results showed that tea cultivation brought major household income and was associated with multiple cultural services. Protected area management affected land use, and conservation outcomes were more obvious to farmers than economic and social ones. We argue that the multi-functionality of the forest-tea system has the potential to benefit both the local people and the public through conservation-compatible activities at three levels: to regulate biophysical elements in the land plot, to link production and market at the mountain level, and to secure tenure and encourage community participation at the landscape level. This knowledge co-production approach revealed that to avoid a negative park–people relationship, traditional knowledge and people’s right to benefit must be respected.

Exploring the Main Determinants of National Park Community Management: Evidence from Bibliometric Analysis

“…However, to successfully achieve these goals, several issues must be addressed, including but not limited to the following prominent research topics: NP management systems [4,34], conflicts of natural resource use, community participation [13,35], com-munity livelihood issues [36][37][38], human-wildlife conflicts [39], and the protection of ecosystems [40] and biodiversity [41]. A comprehensive understanding of the relationships between these issues is imperative.…”

“…livelihood issues [36][37][38], human-wildlife conflicts [39], and the protection of ecosystems [40] and biodiversity [41]. A comprehensive understanding of the relationships between these issues is imperative.…”

Dominant Tree Species and Their Age Groups Drive Forest Carbon Storage in Wuyi Mountain National Park, China

“…Wuyi Mountain contains the largest and most representative forest types with higher diversity of the subtropical forest of China. This region is the most outstanding zone for biodiversity conservation in southeast China and a refuge for many ancient relict species, many of them endemic to China [31]. WMNP encompasses Fujian Wuyi Mountain National Nature Reserve (56,474.20 hm 2 ), Wuyi Mountain National Scenic Zone (5357.53 hm 2 ), Jiuqu Stream Upper Protected Zone (25,084.16 hm 2 ), and other newly zoned areas (13,225.16 hm 2 ) that include adjacent public welfare forests (Figure 1).…”

Challenges and Opportunities in Aligning Conservation with Development in China’s National Parks: A Narrative Literature Review

“…A significant portion of the literature focuses on tensions between conservation efforts and the tea industry (7 papers), as 80% of rural households in Wuyishan acquire the majority of their agricultural income from tea cultivation [58]. Some tea cultivation practices, such as pruning forest cover to maximize sunlight for tea bushes and replacing the soil of tea plantations with better soil from other areas, have come into conflict with new conservation policies [19]. The tourism industry (3 papers) is another source of tension in the region.…”

“…However, little research of this kind has taken place in China, despite the existence of vast areas of protected land in the country where the imperatives of conservation and socioeconomic development are frequently at odds. While some studies have examined the development of specific protected areas in China through the lens of the socioeconomic needs of local communities [18][19][20][21], there is a notable lack of scholarship that considers this question from the larger perspective of China's protected area system as a whole. Moreover, as China's national park system has only existed for a brief time, no prior studies have focused on the ways in which the new system interacts with socioeconomic stakeholders within the national parks specifically, to the best of our knowledge.…”