Conserving the Landscape Connectivity of Natural Forest Reserves in Tourism Development

Abstract

This comprehensive comparison study of the actual and perceived environments of tourist attractions has policy implications for both tourism management and ecological conservation. This study focuses on China’s natural forest reserves (NFRs), comparing the environmental perceptions of residents and tourists with the actual forest environments (greenness and connectivity) of the same tourist attractions. Based on the literature and forest environmental indexes, this quantitative research reveals a discrepancy between tourism development and environmental conservation. First, in most of the tourist attractions we studied, both residents and tourists had a positive perception of their environments; second, most of these tourist attractions had high-level forest greenness but low-level forest connectivity; third, a regression analysis confirms that the environmental perceptions of residents and tourists are significantly and positively related to forest greenness but not to forest connectivity. This study informs policymakers about the degradation of forest connectivity in NFRs and argues that reforestation, afforestation, and the relocation of unnecessary facilities and buildings are needed to restore these areas. In this way, this work aims to increase forest connectivity, improve biodiversity, and enhance tourism development in sustainable ways.