The Development Of Community Participation In Ecotourism On Wuyi Mountain Nature Reserve

The development of ecotourism in natural reserves is a versatile form of tourism that is to meet the tourism demands, make local benefits, and preserve the ecological environment. The natural reserves around the world are taking actions to study the development countermeasures of ecotourism according to their own conditions. Community Participation is the essential requirement of ecotourism in natural reserves. It is an important means to realize the sustainable development of natural resources, environment, and tourism.This paper chooses Mount Wuyi National Nature Reserve as the research object. It adopts the theory of Sustainable Development, Stakeholders Theory, and Ecology Theory to analyze the phenomena and problems that occur in the process of community participation in tourism in Mount Wuyi National Nature Reserve on the basis of investigation of communities nearby. Besides, it provides a design for its communities to build the participation model and safeguard mechanism.The analysis shows that community participation is an integral part in protecting the development of the ecotourism in natural reserves.The development planning, decision making, and construction implementing of the ecotourism in natural reserves all need community participation. The community and natural reserves are well connected. The community members are the direct participants in the ecotourism in natural reserves.Meanwhile, according to the investigation in Mount Wuyi National Nature Reserve, a fact became known that the breadth and depth of community participation is not enough. It is mainly because of the low level of participation, competence, and conscious, etc. consequently, it makes proposals of enhancing participating consciousness of resident, strengthening the related training, ensuring right of first choice, founding residential group tour, etc. It also discusses the participation model of ecotourism and protection mechanism, hoping it can give references for community participation in ecotourism in these natural reserves.