Understanding community capacity-building at a local level for sustainable tourism in World Heritage Site: the case of Wulingyuan in China

ABSTRACTThis paper is concerned with the concept and practice of rural community capacity-building (CCB) within the context of sustainable tourism. Issues are discussed with specific reference to a Chinese village located in the Wulingyuan World Heritage Site (WHS). The results of the CCB initiative conducted with residents, enterprises, and communities reveal a strong interest and necessity for sustainable tourism within WHS. The study takes place within the framework of the WH + ST programme established by UNESCO aligns with an understanding of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV). The purpose of the research is to explore the understanding of CCB at the destination community level. By introducing experiences of a CCB on-site demonstration project targeting critical stakeholders of the destination community, the study aims to enhance knowledge and practice of the implementation of CCB in a part of the global discussion.KEYWORDS: World Heritagesustainable tourismlandscape architecturecapacity-buildingChinaWulingyuan AcknowledgementsWe sincerely acknowledge the villagers of Longweiba Village for their acceptance and friendliness to the working group,and we are also grateful to all levels of government in Wulingyuan for their support of our survey and practice. The Wulingyuan World Natural Heritage Conservation Research and Communication Center is thanked for its assistance in the research and intervention. We are also appreciative of the contributions of Chen Yang, Yumeng Chen, Chensi Zhao, Yilei Dong, and Anqi Cheng to the survey and intervention efforts.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Longweiba Village, also known as Dragon’s Tail Village, is named from the village’s main mountain, which resembles the dragon’s tail.2 see the definition on the UN website: https://www.un.org/en/academic-impact/capacity-building3 See the website of Northern Territory Government https://cmc.nt.gov.au/supporting-government/strategies-and-plans/a-strong-future-for-jabiru4 CAUP, College of Architecture and Urban Planning.5 The ‘village Committee’, shortened as cunweihui in Chinese, is a grassroots mass autonomous organisation for self-management, self-education and self-service for villagers in Mainland China.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the UNESCO World Heritage Training and Research Institute for the Asia and the Pacific Region [WHST-0014] and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, National Key R&D Program [2016YFC0503308].Notes on contributorsYichen ZhuYichen Zhu is assistant professor of Department of Architecture, College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP), Tongji University, China. Her expertise includes urban regeneration and design, heritage landscape, sustainable tourism. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from South China University of Technology, Master of Landscape Architecture from University of Pennsylvania, Doctor of Engineer in Architecture from Tongji University.Jing LiJing Li is PhD candidate of Department of Landscape Architecture, CAUP, Tongji University, China. Her expertise includes World Natural Heritage adaptive-management and rural landscape conservation. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Geology from School of Ocean and Earth Science, and Master of Landscape Architecture from CAUP, Tongji University.Feng HanFeng Han is the professor and the former director of Department of Landscape Architecture, CAUP, Tongji University, China. She is the Vice President of ICOMOS-IFLA International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes and the convener of “Connecting Culture and Nature Working Group” of the Committee, an expert member of IUCN World Commission of Protect Area. She is also member of World Heritage Expert Committee, Forestry and Grassland Administration, Ministry of Natural Resources of China, and the founder and Chair of Cultural Landscape Committee of Chinese Landscape Architecture Society. Her current research interests include World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism, and cultural landscape theories. She holds Bachelor and Master of Landscape Architecture from Tongji University, Ph.D from Queensland University of Technology.