Synergizing a socio-ecological system: reflections on community-based natural resource management at the World Heritage Site of Mount Huangshan, China

Abstract

Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) originally aimed to promote nature conservation through community empowerment, but this aim is not easy to achieve. To analyze the reasons and propose responses, this paper constructed an analytical framework for CBNRM based on the theory of socio-ecological system synergies. A mixed-method (questionnaires, interviews, and observations) explanatory case study of Feicui village within the Mount Huangshan World Natural Heritage Site in Eastern China was conducted. The research illuminates the complexity of the CBNRM initiative in Feicui village, which neglects socio-ecological system synergies, leading to a lack of connection between the benefits from and attitudes toward natural conservation and a loss of integrated resource management. This study responds to the incomprehensibility of CBNRM and provides important theoretical contributions to international debates on CBNRM by highlighting the essence of recognizing system synergies to avoid deviating from the original intent of CBNRM.

Keywords:

• synergy
• socio-ecological systems
• community-based natural resource conservation
• World Natural Heritage
• Mount Huangshan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).