Study On Tourism Eco-compensation Of Protected Areas In Yunnan Province

The Ecological Compensation, as an important means of protecting ecological environment and mitigating the conflicts among different stakeholders, has been applied to different fields. In China, the mechanism for tourism eco-compensation is still in its infancy. According to the IUCN, more than13percent of the lands and more than1.17%of the oceans have been incorporated into the protected areas in the world by now, which show the increasing tendency. Many of the protected areas have been developed into tourism resorts and this brings both advantages and threats to the protection of the protected areas. The tourism eco-compensation is a system arrangement, which rely mainly on economic measures to adjust the relationships between different eco-stakeholders and play a role of important safeguards in the sustainable development of the protected areas and its tourism industry. The implementation of tourism eco-compensation can result to user fees, destroyer compensation to correct and avoiding n on-ecological phenomenon, which will motivate ecological protection of community residents who are benefited. Tourism eco-compensation coordinates the relationships between stakeholders involved in a tourism development mainly by economical means. Furthermore, as a market compensating channel, the tourism eco-compensation plays a vital role in resolve shortage of funds. Although the existing relevant researches and practices have lay a good foundation for establish the mechanism for tourism eco-compensation.. However, generally speaking, a mature theoretical method and practice about the establishment of the mechanism for tourism eco-compensation for a protected area still requires more in-depth research.This paper focuses on the mechanism for tourism eco-compensation for a protected area in Yunnan province which is a China’stypical area of developing both environment protection and tourism industry. Based on this, the paper selects POTATSO National Park as the empirical point which actes as the inaugurator of protecting National Parks in China. By combining the literature research and case study, qualitative research and quantitative research, the paper involved following aspects:First of all, in view of the current confusion in the understanding of the tourism eco-compensation, this paper presents a theoretical system for the tourism eco-compensation. During this study, the current understanding of eco-compensation, the theory of multi-disciplinary tourism eco-compensation and the duality of tourism and ecological compensation have been reviewed. Based on the study, two perspectives to understand the tourism eco-compensation were proposed, i.e."Theory of subject" and "Theory of pathway" After analyzing the basic semanteme and category of tourism eco-compensation, a complete relation domain wherein stakeholders would interact with each other was defined, which included three compensation subjects, three compensation objects and three compensation targets (this can also be classified into only two categories:ecosystem and human beings), punishment for negative externality and encouragement for positive externality, and value-oriented compensation and material-oriented compensation. Besides, some confusing concepts were distinguished in this paper.Secondly, based on the study of current development of the protected areas and their tourism in Yunnan Province, the motivation of carrying out tourism eco-compensation in protected areas in Yunnan Province is discussed in terms of the malfunction in market, namely "Negative externality in ecological system", and the malfunction in government during the development of tourism in the protected areas. The feasibility and importance of carrying out tourism eco-compensation in protected areas in Yunnan Province are stated based on the policies improved continuously, some legal grounds, active exploration and practice and urgent demand from the system.Thirdly, based on both national-wide and world-wide case studies about the tourism eco-compensation of protected areas, those relevant overseas experience is concluded as follow:the compensation philosophy is always subject to the management goals of protected area, a variety of compensation subject form resultant force, paying equal attention to punishment and incentives, paying attention to the comprehensive and dynamic compensation standard, combination of direct and indirect compensation way, orderly management of funds, consummating the system of compensation. The main features of domestic tourism ecocompensation for protected areas as follow:thefees of resource use and protection manage are the important sources of compensation funds, tourism developers and operators is the main subject of compensation, paying attention to the differentiation of compensation standard and dynamic, compensation mode diversification, the relatively standard management of compensation funds.Finally, based on the case study of POTATSO National Park, the basis frame of a tourism eco-compensation system for Yunnan Province was established in this paper. This frame specifies the responsibility for each party involved in the tourism eco-compensation for the protected areas, the compensation standards, how to select the means of compensation and how to oversee and guarantee the tourism eco-compensation. This frame aims to accelerate the establishment of a standardized and suitable tourism eco-compensation system for Yunnan Province, mitigate the conflicts between the protection work and tourism development of the protected areas and achieve the sustainable development for both ecosystem protection and tourism in the protected areas. Besides, some advice for carrying out tourism eco-compensation in the protected areas in Yunnan Province is given as well.According to the aforementioned study, it can be concluded that the connotation of the tourism eco-compensation is comprehensive. The motivation of carrying out the tourism eco-compensation is to tackle with the market failure and the government failure during the development of tourism in the protected areas. Since the protected areas function as tourism attractions, they are able to achieve certain level of self-compensation. An ineffective management system is the main hurdle for performing the tourism eco-compensation in the protected areas. A sustainable self-supporting compensation model is the key to establish the mechanism for effective tourism eco-compensation in the protected areas.