Balancing people-park conflict, conservation and tourism in Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park

ABSTRACT

The main aim of protected areas is biodiversity conservation, yet those areas are getting increasingly popular among tourists. Previous research indicates that creating protected areas strengthens management initiatives, which in turn causes park-people conflicts around the resources. This study focuses on community development issues within China's newly established Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park. We aim to understand the relationship between residents’ individual development and their attitudes towards the park's construction. Through a qualitative multi-method approach utilising participant observation, field notes, 16 interviews, and three Ketso workshops with ten residents living and working within the park’s borders. The findings revealed three themes: tourism development, social welfare, and heritage policies, all highlighting economic tensions between the national park and the community. This study examines factors influencing park-people conflicts and offers policy recommendations for national parks. Subsequent research could utilise quantitative methods for additional empirical support.

KEYWORDS:

• People-park conflict
• community-conservation tensions
• community development
• management of protected areas
• Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park
• Ketso

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to extend our sincere thanks to Qiying Chen for her assistance in data collection. We also want to express our appreciation to the reviewer, who generously provided two revisions for their thoughtful and constructive feedback, which has been useful in the improvement of our work.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Hainan University.