Ecotourism in China: Ending the Tradition of Environmental Exploitation

Nicole Gentile

Freeman Grant Paper

September 12, 2006

Introduction

As a tourist destination, China is often associated with bustling cities, religious attractions, architectural wonders, and an extensive cultural history.  However, with an incredibly varied landscape and greater biodiversity than any other country, more than anything, China is a prime location for ecotourism.  Since coastal areas see such a large percentage of China’s tourist industry, inner-China is missing out on enormous revenue, allowing the wealth discrepancy between the two areas to increase.  Ecotourism, if correctly executed, could help to improve inner-China’s tourism appeal.  The main problem lies in the definition of Ecotourism.  As a young woman from the Beijing Conservation International Office stated, “According to the Chinese Government, if it involves looking at nature, it can be considered ecotourism.”  This however, can lead to environmentally and culturally irresponsible tourism that perpetuates a dangerous tradition of environmental exploitation.  Ecotourism has many definitions, but most definitions include three important conditions: “Ecotourism involves travel to relatively well-conserved natural areas; it takes particular care of the environment and promotes conservation; its purpose is to provide non-consumptive experience and to educate participants” (Wen and Tisdell, 1995).  As a result, many destinations in China which are nature-based unrightfully carry the title of “ecotourism”.

The objective of this project was to investigate the practice of Ecotourism within China through working with an environmental NGO.  By interviewing persons involved in Ecotourism planning, directing and promotion and personally experiencing this type of travel, I came away with new insights that will lead to a senior thesis to be completed in the spring of 2007.  

Research Outline

Research was conducted in July of 2006 and involved working with Conservation International in Chengdu, China, as well as traveling to nature reserves in Northern Sichuan province.  While based in the Chengdu office of Conservation International, I spent time as a volunteer while closely observing the inner workings of an environmental NGO in China.  I also had the opportunity to sit in on meetings and presentations, interview employees at CI and World Wildlife Fund, and take part in the interviewing process for a new Ecotourism manager for the Chengdu CI office.  While traveling in Northern Sichuan province, I had the opportunity to compare and contrast two “Ecotourism” destinations while interviewing directors and employees.  In this paper, I will attempt to outline some of the major points from interviews and personal experiences, while recognizing that five pages cannot do justice to the entire experience.

Research Findings
Conservation International Office

Conservation International is relatively new to China, having started in July of 2001.  When the office was first established in Chengdu, there was much debate over whether or not to include ecotourism on the agenda.  In 2004, after a persuasive talk given by Elizabeth Economy, the office was convinced of the threats posed to the environment by tourism, and included ecotourism in its conservation plan.  In 2004, a meeting was held at Hailuogou to determine the major goals of ecotourism.  The reason Hailuogou was chosen as a site for the meeting was because it is a relatively good example of a natural area that is suffering from pollution in the wake of mass tourism.   The people invited to this meeting represented an extensive group of interests and included government officials, farmers, businesses from Sichuan province as well as people from local communities.  A list of three ecotourism conservation strategies resulted from this meeting:

1. The reduction of mass tourism impact by enforcing conservation laws

2. The promotion of community-based ecotourism led by local people

3. The raising of awareness about ecotourism and its goal to reduce China’s tourism footprint.

Ecotourism is a new concept to China, and many people aren’t familiar with the full meaning of “Sheng tai lu you” (the Chinese translation of ecotourism).  Since this meeting, CI has taken steps in the promotion of ecotourism.  However, their temporary Ecotourism manger has been too busy with other projects to give it the attention it needs.  They are currently in the process of searching for someone to take over this position.  However, this has proven difficult due to the lack of qualified applicants. 

The Conservation International office in Chengdu, while an internationally funded NGO, is made up entirely of persons from China.  None of the employees that I interviewed considered themselves environmentalists before coming to CI.  Several had been trained in a special program that provides scholarships for ethnic minority groups to study at Universities around the country in preparation for NGO work.  However, they had been more interested in other social issues and had settled on CI and environmentalism as a second choice.  Candidates for the Ecotourism manager position showed the same apparent lack experience with the environmental cause.  Of the fifty applicants, only three had strong enough applications to be interviewed by the CI director and current Ecotourism manager.  Of these three, none had any experience with ecotourism or conservation efforts.  The most promising candidate had lead international tours in China for four years; all to mass tourism destinations.  None of the applicants were hired and the search is still ongoing.                      

Wanglang Nature Reserve vs. Jiuzhaigou

Wanglang was the first of four nature reserves to include the giant panda habitat.  In 2006, this reserve became the first recognized ecotourism destination in China by the Green Global organization.  To be recognized by Green Global, a reserve is judged on its communication, building and design, communication and—the hardest to pass—ecotourism.  The Wanglang reserve chose to pursue ecotourism development for several reasons:
1. To provide a revenue to supplement the government’s relatively small funding

2. To protect the natural environment

3. To improve relations between local communities and the nature reserve

4. To allow people to interact with wildlife

5. To provide environmental education

6. To provide better jobs for the nature reserve’s staff

7. To fulfill a responsibility to society

As far as employing local people of the Baima ethnicity, not much progress has been made.  There are servers at the hotel who are from local villages, but none of the park rangers are locals.  Rangers need to be highly educated, and this is sometimes difficult for locals to achieve.  There are no local guides yet, but the directors believe that there should be in the future.  Wanglang employs 30-something people as rangers and 30-something people at the hotel (overall around 70 people).  The hotel can fit up to 108 visitors at once. 

There are two sides from which to look at the success of Wanglang.  From the perspective of preserving a natural area, Wanglang is doing well.  However, from the government’s perspective, there are still many issues.  This is a government funded reserve and all the proceeds from ecotourism go to the government.  The government wants to make more money on this reserve and increase the capacity to be more comparable with Jiuzhaigou.  However, it is important to recognize that Jiuzhaigou and Wanglang are difficult to compare.  Jiuzhaigou is a beautiful place to enjoy the scenery, while Wanglang is a very important and fragile ecosystem.  Speaking in terms of biodiversity, Wanglang is a much better preserved area and therefore needs more attention paid to conservation.  Additionally, Wanglang focuses on environmental education with its visitors providing workshops, educated guides, children’s summer camps and regular presentations by the rangers about the importance of conservation.  The rangers also travel outside the reserve with their goal of education having presented at summits in Beijing.  Jiuzhaigou will have up to 30,000 visitors per day, while Wanglang will only have around 10,000 a year.  To increase tourism in the Wanglang reserve to the level seen at Jiuzhaigou is simply not sustainable.  The government places a lot of emphasis on making a profit and therefore puts a lot of pressure on Wanglang directors to increase capacity.  Although the government does want to attract more people and make more money, they want to strike a balance so as not to harm the giant panda’s habitat.

The types of tourists

The general consensus is that there are two main types of tourists that come to the Wanglang reserve.  The first, and most common, are more interested in seeing pandas and want to avoid strenuous exercise.  The interviewees made the generalization that these tourists tend to be less interested in conservation.  These tourists develop a “Where are the pandas?” attitude and are quite disappointed in the fact that pandas are very timid animals.  Additionally the reserve rangers keep people away from the pandas so as not to disrupt their mating patterns or to drive them away from the protected area provided by the reserve.  This means that actually encountering a panda is an extremely rare incident. In 1997, the reserve has installed a GIS (Geography Information System) system that keeps track of where pandas are in the reserve so that tourist access can be limited.  The second type of tourist, however, is excited by tracking panda “nests”, scat, and other indicators of their presence.  They are more interested in hiking and learning about the panda’s natural habitat as well as the ecosystem they are a part of.  The reserve directors said that, in general, the first type of tourist described above tend to be local Chinese visitors while the second type tend to be foreign travelers.  For conservation reasons, the rangers prefer the second type of ecotourist, but see relatively few of them.   

Setbacks Encountered During Research

While doing research, I encountered a serious setback that gave me a very different view of travel in China.  While staying on one of the nature reserves, I got severely ill.  After developing severe gastrointestinal symptoms and a dangerously high fever, the directors of Wanglang nature reserve became very worried about my health and sent me on the eight hour ride back to Chengdu in a police car.  After conversing with my doctors in the United States and the CI director, it was suggested that I return as quickly as possible and seek medical attention in San Francisco: I didn’t realize it at the time, but they were concerned that my symptoms were consistent with bird flu (apparently as I had already developed the symptoms, I was not a threat to other travelers).  I was very weak and delirious for the whole process, but was in the States and in a doctor’s care within 5 days of my initial symptoms.  The conclusion was that I had been infected with a similar but, luckily, not fatal virus.  An ICU doctor in San Francisco said, “We see people in this hospital after returning from China on a regular basis.  They’ll be here for a week and we’ll still never know exactly what they had.”  It was very discouraging as it took me weeks to fully recover my strength and appetite, and even longer to gain back the weight.  In her book Tourism and China’s Development, Julie Jie Wen notes that China is the only developing country in the list of the top five tourist destinations.  Gastrointestinal issues are not uncommon among travelers in China.  This introduces a different variable into travel that may or may not be encountered in other regions, but is of serious concern to persons planning travel itineraries.  Luckily I was able to complete much of my research before getting sick.

Additional difficulties were in my use of the Chinese language.  I found that certain words that I used as translations from English often have different connotations, even with a similar definition, in Chinese.  This proved difficult and I found myself having to explain concepts instead of using direct translations so that the true intent of my interview questions would be made clear.  I also found interviewing people in Chinese while taking notes in English was a very difficult task.