@phdthesis{Yang2019, author = {Yang, Xueyan}, title = {Participatory management of community-based ecotourism at Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve, China}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:co1-opus4-48469}, school = {BTU Cottbus - Senftenberg}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Community-based ecotourism (CBET) is promoted in protected areas of developing countries as a strategy for biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation. The success of CBET initiatives relies on effective participatory management programs that can build up collaborative relationships between key stakeholders - protected area administrative staff and local communities - and foster community empowerment. The performance of CBET participatory management programs, relationships between administrative staff and local community, and the level of community empowerment were previously assessed from the perspective of local communities. This study addresses both the perspectives of local community members and administrative staff, through an interview survey in Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve, China. This reserve is a key protected area for the conservation of giant panda and other endangered species in China, and is therefore of high priority for the national biodiversity strategy. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to survey 200 local Tibetan villagers and 80 administrative staff members. The results indicate that both staff members and locals support the existing participatory management program - ecotourism development plan (EDP), but locals criticized the sustainable management policy (SMP). Younger, better educated and higher income interviewees were generally most supportive of the EDP and SMP. The relationship between staff members and locals was expressed as problematic with a lack of trust being mentioned as a key issue. The local community is empowered to some extent in economic and environmental dimensions, but not in social, psychological and political dimensions. The CBET generates economic income, but creates problems like inequality of benefit distribution, insufficient social infrastructure, loss of cultural identity, ecological degradation and participation as tokenism. Key factors that hinder the success of CBET from protected area governance and management aspects are a prevalent top-down approach, a mixture of property and operation rights, single sources of funding creating dependencies, a lack of efficient administrative structure and management capacity, and a lack of capacity building programs for the local community. This thesis provides empirical evidence for issues and limitations of policy implications under CBET participatory management programs in a protected area and offers recommendations on how to improve programs in the future.}, subject = {Protected areas; Participatory management; Tibet; Administrative staff; Community empowerment; Naturschutzgebiete; Partizipationsmanagement; Naturschutzgebietsverwaltung; St{\"a}rkung der Eigenst{\"a}ndigkeit der lokalen Bev{\"o}lkerung; Jiuzhaigou; Naturschutzgebiet; Umweltbezogenes Management; {\"O}kotourismus; B{\"u}rgerbeteiligung}, language = {en} }