With one of the country's biggest wetlands, Tongyu's Xianghai Wetland Reserve
does have enough natural resources for ecotourism.
Xianghai Wetland was listed as one of the world's most important nature
reserves by the World Wildlife Fund and was one of 30 Chinese sites listed on
the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance in 1986.
It contains 600 species of wild plants and animals, 19,000 hectares of
forests, vast grasslands, 22 lakes, and more than 36,000 hectares of wetlands.
It was an ideal breeding ground for over 250 species of migratory birds,
including nine of the world's 15 documented crane species, and was home to 53
rare and endangered species, among them the bustard, red-crowned crane, golden
eagle, red-crested crane, and white stork.
Under the Regulations for the Management of Natural Reserves, the country's
current decree on the management of protected areas, no farming, fishing, or
herding are allowed in the huge area of land and lakes in the Xianghai Reserve.
The prohibition has been valid since the regulations were issued in 1994, but
it could not be observed here: more than 4,000 residents inhabit the wetland
reserve and most rely on farming, fishing or herding for their livelihood.
With the increasing population, local authorities could no longer ignore the
pressure on the wetland. Fewer birds are coming to the wetland for breeding, the
lakes are shrinking and the wetland is even in danger of drying up.
Under such circumstances, county officials have decided to pick up
ecotourism, which they believe could be a very good fix for their problems:
economic growth, the natural reserve and community development.
However, it is difficult to find an example of an attraction that has made
their tourism activities "ecological" enough.
Responsible ecotourism includes programmes that minimize the adverse effects
of traditional tourism on the natural environment, and enhance the cultural
integrity of local people.
Neither of these targets can be left out in an ecotourism project. Otherwise,
the tourist activities would cause harm to the natural resources or to the
culture of the community.
Unfortunately, this is the case for most of the tourist attractions with the
title of ecotourism. In most cases, ecotourism has become a tag to promote all
kinds of activities in places close to nature reserves.
According to Jiang Mingkang and Wu Xiaomin, researchers with the Institute of
Environment Science under the State Environmental Protection Administration, 22
per cent of natural reserves have seen damage to the species or biosphere
specially protected in them due to tourist activities, and 11 per cent of the
reserves even saw an overall deterioration of resources.
Jiang and Wu attributed the damages to three causes: an overload of tourists
and their activities in the reserves, lack of careful tourism planning and
strict supervision and the excessive presence of buildings.
Deng Bing, a graduate student from Peking University specializing in tourism
planning, stayed in Jisha village in the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan
Protected Area, a natural world heritage, for more than a month for her survey.
Boiled down, real ecotourism has rarely materialized. It is distorted into
mere tourism in these protected areas, which either damages the natural
resources or hurts the local community's culture or traditions.
Researchers have had made numerous suggestions to decision-makers on
the topic of how to strike a balance between natural reservation, economic
growth and community development with ecotourism.
At the starting point of launching a tourism industry and determined to make
it ecological, Tongyu needs more wits than its predecessors and less of an itch
for instant economic growth.
 | 1 | 2 |
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
