Ecotourism in China - Term Paper Example

? Ecotourism in China of institute] [Environment] Ecotourism in China With the advent of time and increasing level of enlightenment and literacy which has taken place all over the world, most countries intend to discover newer frontiers. These discoveries have allowed different economies to explore unique sources of income and thus, promote to the social well-being of its people. One such area and segment of income generation which has been under consideration in recent times by various countries, is the sector of ecotourism. However, before we move into the multitude and diverse dynamics governed by ecotourism in different countries, it is important that the salient injunctions of this process are properly understood. During the course of this discussion, we would look at some fundamental aspects of ecotourism and the ways in which these practices are applied in case of a growing economy such as China. The topics in different phases of discussion would deal with multitude features that would help us in understanding the different dynamics of ecotourism. It will also look at the ways in which China has been utilizing them to serve the purpose of exploring newer frontiers to generate income. These techniques, at the same time also increase the level of awareness among Chinese people regarding different types of natural, places of scenic beauty and tourist points . Before moving into further details of ecotourism and the ways in which this phenomenon is applied in China, it is important to understand some rudimentary facts about ecotourism. Ecotourism is basically defined as, the form of tourism which often involves touring of fragile and pristine, and comprises of those specific areas which are normally protected and their access is restricted to general public. It is important that ecotourism must be properly distinguished from the conventional norms and rules of the tourism industry and their application in the global industry. It is important to mention here that ecotourism is mainly used as an effective tool in the process of educating a traveler who visits a new place. The traveler may intend to learn about the different ways in which community functions and how its various forces of formation coordinate with each other. Some of the core areas where ecotourism intends to operate are: facilitating environmental sustainability and ecological conservation of different types of habitats that may exist in a certain geographical region. In addition to this, ecotourism pre-dominantly accentuates upon the social aspects and dimensions of tourism, rather than focusing on acquiring commercial and monetary gains only. Different agendas and programs, which are launched and initiated under the banner of ecotourism policies, intend to launch schemes and awareness programs. By the help of these programs, they can educate and inform people at a massive level. This education looks at different ways through which people can play a proactive role in bettering their very own environment. At the same time, it also urges them to make efforts through which sustainable development of environment is possible. Case of Yixian valley and Ecotourism in China The Yixian Valley is located about 450 km from Shanghai, in the south of Anhui Province and close to Huangshan. It’s famous for "Yellow Mountains", landscapes and pleasant weather. This valley is a member of the global network of UNESCO Geoparks. By the end of 2004, benefiting from very high investments, the region implemented 290 projects in eight key programs. These programs were aimed at the development of ecotourism, organic farming, and preservation of scenic beauty, energy enhancement, water work industry, development planning and transport. The key selection criteria due to which Yixian has been selected, is the fact that it is one of those places in the country where some serious and high level efforts for the development of ecotourism have taken place in recent years. This place has also been a centre of ecotourism investment, even for foreign investors and their related organizations. An example is France who has constantly pumped finance for the development of this sector in this area. Moreover, the development taken place in this particular area also serves as the harbinger for other areas in China, which needs to be developed on similar lines and patterns. The region hopes to attract 27 million visitors by the start of 2012, including touch above million foreigners and the total number of sales is estimated to be around 2.6 billion Euros. The picturesque valley of Yixian, and its adjoining villages and towns are spokesman of Chinese cultural heritage and are witness to more than 2200 years of history and civilization. Savior of Huizhou culture (one of the three famous regional Chinese cultures), this ancient land is rich in natural and cultural resources. The former family property is exceptionally well preserved, including traditional Huizhou architecture and remains of Ming and Qing dynasties (which ruled this place between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries). Xidi and Hongcun are two villages in the valley which are classified as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. The four treasures of Chinese scholar (paper, brush, ink and the Ink stone), occupy a special place in calligraphy and Chinese painting. The paper, ink and ink stone produced in Huizhou are well known, both in China and abroad. Sculpture made up of wood or stone, is a specialty of the region and a take away gift for the loved ones. This region is also home to the Hui merchant (one of the two major groups of commercial Chinese). The known opera Huiju, cooking Hui, the Xin'an school of painting, the Egoii writing seals and Huizhou tea gardens, together formed the school of Huizhou culture (Xue Hui). The French knowledge of the region played a pivotal role in the ecotourism development of the valley of Yixian. The local government wants Yixian to portray and promote economic and social development of a set of ancient villages through International tourism, including ecotourism. In spite of doing this, it also wants to preserve the architectural heritage, rural and environmental quality. The goal of Chinese Government is to make the county, a global destination which can be an exemplary showcase for ecotourism. Following this, there are other areas too in the country that needs to be brought under consideration to get a more clear view of the ecotourism structure in China. We shift our study to the area which is known as Valley County. Covering almost a set of 27 traditional villages and encompassing an area of 100 km, this area has about 3200 old, limestone buildings. Asset France that comprises of French and Chinese experts, have taken the responsibility of developing a master tourism plan which completed just recently in the month of November 2011. The potential as conveyed by market research, for ecotourism is just great. The rich natural and cultural resources complemented by the behavior of locals, makes tourism the sole contributor to the economic development of valley Yixian. Asset France and local authority is very keen in promoting Yixian and potential investors to uncover the potential of a ‘International ecotourism destination’ in the making. Organizational participation and Ecotourism in China Apart from looking at the different type of cases which we have discussed, it is also important to have a look at some of the fundamental organizations which are playing a proactive part and role in ensuring the sustainability of ecotourism in China. An important company to mention in this context is Wild China. This company was founded in 2000 by entrepreneur Zhang Mei, a Chinese native of Yunnan Province, who was educated in the United States. The company decided to help the government of the province to develop its tourist economy while preserving the beauty of places and cultures. Since its founding, Wild China is naturally oriented towards ecotourism. It started by organizing custom tours for individual travelers and has always proposed routes outside areas traditionally popular with mass tourism. It deliberately started its operations in the western provinces, such as Qinghai and Gansu, where no one was operational in 2000. At that time, all agencies were facing east, the most developed region of China. From the very beginning, the company only worked with local guides, train and paying tourists. It was a revolution since many guides in China are poorly paid and are forced to pay commissions to stores from where they take groups. It also marketed on saving paper by printing brochures on recycled paper and refraining from using plastic in its operations. In places like Beijing, they tried to take tourists to areas less frequented and organized meals with the residents, as well as the traditional tai-chi workshops. Since then, that unique business proposition of Wild China has been copied! For them, the goal is not to "make China" but to meet Chinese people. China needs to popularize these concepts. The Chinese, except the younger generations, are not interested in traveling off to the beaten track in poorer areas other than where they come from. Responsible tourism in China is still a niche sector; it represents at most 5% of revenue. The challenges are important because most agencies have turned to profitability and do not really consider the local population. Meanwhile, the Chinese are rediscovering their heritage. Upon the opening of a circuit in Yushu in southern Qinghai, the youth came up and explored the older China. It is important to explain to the youth that these are natural and extraordinary monuments. The local government has finally realized the need to develop tourism. Overall, the concept is becoming popular in China. There is a lot of work that needs doing and it could be done through trainings at grass route level especially at urban schools. Problems of Ecotourism in China According to the results disclosed by the China National Committee for Man and the Biosphere, 22% of China’s nature reserves and 11% of sites reserved for tourism are undergoing constant deterioration by the menace of "ecotourism". Urgent attention should be paid to this problem. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defined the concept of ecotourism in 1983. This, defined ecotourism as: • A natural tourism destination, • Tourism that does not pose a threat to the environment. In China, many operators engaging in the organizing of tourism events try to grip attention of tourists by making them visit the place which they can get the chance "to experience nature and the environment” but few have the ability of showing any sort of comprehension towards the genuine concept and the application of ecotourism. Even, in this unattended tourism, the numbers of tourists visiting these places are even lesser. Most people are still glued to the misconception which makes them think that ecotourism is synonymous with an "entertainment in nature”. These people actually want to keep all their comfort and habits in their urban destination. In other words, they want to commune with nature without spending a drop of their sweat. This means, the construction and development of appropriate infrastructure such as bridges, cable cars, luxury and lavish hotels, different type of shops, spas and discos. Tourist sites which were once very famous have also been transformed into urban cities, embedded in mountains. When a site is awarded the status of an ecotourism destination, without the conduction of any appropriate evaluation and planning, then the outcome of such reforms can pose catastrophic repercussions on other natural resources and reserves that exist in the region. These resources can include vegetation, marine sources, flora and fauna which can suffer the ramifications of such careless practices. The fact remains that the science of ecotourism and its subsequent application requires the understanding of all its related complications and difficulties along with industry dynamics and technological aspects. Protection and nature conservation are supposed to be the pre-dominantly imperative aims of true ecotourism specialists. Locally, established mechanism of governments should set stringent rules, for example, excluding tourists from intervening in places possessing key reserves of the country. It should encourage the scope of research on academic grounds in buffer zones and must not allow tourists in specifically limited areas. The number of foreigners entering any particular site must be controlled and supervised under all conditions. Along with this, it is also important that the number of visitors must be in accordance with the environmental capability of every tourist site. Presently, the concept of eco-tourism is very vague in China and many rural tourism operators and local governments don’t fully understand its meaning. The development of tourism requires that the local community must understand the needs of the tourists of the city and the government should also spend ample money to improve the physical facilities. The government instead is investing in expansion of multi-storey buildings, housing, and country roads with cement sidewalks, Golf Gardens and Ridge parking. These, unfortunately, are the initiatives that are not only destroying the natural ecosystem of the country but is also responsible for the loss of strong local flavor. Agriculture Eco-tourism in China, for over 20 years, involved forestry, agriculture, water conservation, construction, tourism and other areas but currently it doesn’t play an important role in the economy, due to lack of unified planning, management and direction. Eco-tourism projects runs everywhere with obvious characteristics but water and electricity, roads, telecommunications, health facilities, poor infrastructure aren’t developed enough to meet the needs and expected standards of tourists. This difficulty to guarantee quality of service lags far behind the pace of development of ecotourism. These are the main problems which affect the pace and development of sustainable eco-tourism in China. Eco-tourism should be independent, have a distinctive feature of agriculture, in order to distinguish it from other tourist attractions and should fully embody the local 'agricultural' fun and flavor. However, China's current eco-tourism is more focused on the development of agriculture and tourist recreational agriculture, tourism products and tourism development projects like orchards, forest parks and fishing parks, etc. The quality of local products is also not very high and the local market does not produce many products to attract tourists. This is the main reason that the flow of tourists has gone low. China is a developing country and it can facilitate the development of eco-tourism resources, environment, and population pressure and enhance the relationship between economy and ecology. It can include a virtuous cycle of sustainable development of agriculture with urbanization and industrialization, the deepening of human survival and living space for growth. With the ecological environment deterioration, people are back to basics and growing desire to return to nature while those with discretionary income and rising time, demand for the material and cultural life. A major characteristic of eco-tourism is that it reflects the cultural characteristics of different regions. Agricultural production in China has thousands of years of history and it has long been the breeding ground of Chinese people together to continue the fine tradition of fertility, combined within a vast territory. China's vast territory and diverse topography, climate and the wide diversity of species, vary widely in the natural environment, forming a landscape of different agro-ecological zones of space. The eco-tourism and tourism as a combination of new products, has huge bright prospects for development. However, it has been stressed that the current development of China's ecological tourism needs an object, and input and output efficiency point of view. Ways of improving ecotourism in China A duo of "conservation" and "development" standards can be followed in accordance with the willingness to converge economic growth, the fight against poverty and protection of natural resources in a "development model". In this model, ecotourism is presented as the means to simultaneously meet the interests of many players and favoring the entry of foreign currency for government and industry, creating local jobs and contributing to biodiversity protection. This model is directly related to the "diagnosis of Washington", on natural resources makes the rural population - living mostly on the periphery of protected natural areas - the main vector of degradation. In this reading, the forest resources are under pressure from the villagers, who often depend on forests for firewood, charcoal and timber. In the context of tourism development of a protected area, the goal is to provide an alternative to the consumption of resources by providing the rural poor the opportunity to become employed, primarily as a guide. This reasoning is based on the dominant economic paradigm that has the market as an opportunity to be seized for the poor. They are in fact external interventions that create "environmental issues" by denouncing sort of values and a way of organizing the space not corresponding to the dominant model. Another prominent model and idea of ecotourism, which is contemporarily being implemented in China is that of Paradoxalement. This idea suggests that ecotourism is based on the originality of the culture to grow and contribute at the same time. Under these conditions, ecotourism merely shifts the problem of degradation, it does not solve it. Under the pretext of a rational use of resources, it is proposed to the rural poor to fit into the capitalist mode of production (labor is hired in exchange for a salary), becoming - as the Western societies have chosen to do - consumers of natural resources "delocalized". Far from being an exceptional activity in this area, ecotourism can actually allow protection of a natural resource but at the cost of using "other" resources located "elsewhere" on the site. The local population of the area often forgets that our urban activities located so far from the natural resources are based also on industrial consumption of it, that is to say, a mode of consumption-based value-added production. It is important to believe that ecotourism is based on the same type of proposal, or the creation or preservation of value (in our case, the nature of which adds to the growing scarcity its economic attractiveness) for the benefit of those who benefit from the structures national or international authority. The Power of International Financial Institutions and Environmental NGOs is often evident in the ways they provide funds for ecotourism development, or promised rewards to Government, companies and communities. An initial diagnosis of ecotourism development suggests that the major problem of these projects is the lack of a true place of integration of multiple actors. Each of them seems to make its own compromise between the various interests involved, depending on its resources. No legitimate authority seems able (or willing) to actually mediate in conflicts or to balance sustainability to defend the general interest. Funding for World Bank programs in Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a prime example in this direction. The proposed GEF funds are provided to developing countries and transition seeking economies to support economic growth while protecting the environment. The conversion of Russian network of protected areas (zapovedniks) has allowed the Russian government to collect a grant of 20 million dollars for the protection of biodiversity in 1996. In doing so, the World Bank and the Russian government raised the assumption - widely held - that natural resources can be protected by "free market". Similar efforts for raising funds in the name of developing ecotourism in China are being practiced, especially in the region of Yixian. This fragility is based mainly on the desire to reconcile three distinct purposes; the social and economic development (income generation and employment), the spatial planning for tourism and the protection of natural resources. Under these conditions, eco-tourism development projects have offered ways to adjust these levels of interlocking interests more or less coherent in a multitude of previous regulations. By putting in place arrangements for conciliation between local development projects, planning and environmental protection, Ecotourism is part of a device-offs that necessarily produces unbalanced solutions. Under these conditions, it is not surprising that ecotourism cannot consistently meet all the expectations it carries. Read More