What measures can be taken to improve the environmental carrying capacity of ecotourism areas?

1. Establish a unified leadership organization to strengthen planning and management.

Multiple leadership, fragmentation, and the inability to form a unified and effective planning and management mechanism are important reasons that have long hindered the comprehensive development and protection of nature reserves. To this end, nature reserves should establish a unified vertical hierarchical management system. Taking nature reserves managed by forestry departments as an example, national nature reserves are managed by the State Forestry Administration, provincial nature reserves are managed by provincial (district) level forestry departments (bureaus), and county-level nature reserves are managed by county-level forestry bureaus. manage. The national bureau only manages the approval of the overall plan, first-level protected objects, and core areas; the provincial competent authorities are responsible for the examination and approval of second-level protected objects and buffer zones; the county-level competent departments are responsible for the examination and approval of provincial-level protected objects and experimental areas, and each has its own A certain range of forest land approval rights. At the same time, the provincial competent authorities supervise the implementation of the overall plan, and direct management includes planning, review, planning, investment, evaluation, personnel, assessment, training, etc. 5

When developing, the policy of “comprehensive planning, active protection, scientific management, and sustainable utilization” should be implemented, and based on the theory and principles of functional zoning of nature reserves, while adhering to the principle of “protection first” Under the premise, we should adapt measures to local conditions, unify planning and layout, and correctly handle the relationships between protection and development, tourism and education, resource protection areas and community development. Once the plan is approved, it must be implemented "step by step" by year and project, one by one, accumulated year by year, step by step, and cannot be perfunctory. Supervisory departments should also implement their responsibilities in place, and assign responsibilities to people and rights. Only with clear responsibilities can the protection and management of protected areas be implemented effectively.

2. Operation rights are separated from management rights and operate in accordance with market rules.

Since we want to develop tourism resources in protected areas, to some extent, we need to bring the main body of protection to the market and bring it into the orbit of the market economy. Then, its operations must follow the laws of market economy. However, as unique tourism resources, the natural resources in nature reserves are different from ordinary resources on the market. Therefore, under market economy conditions, it must be strictly restricted and managed. In this way, it is required to separate the management rights of tourism resource development in protected areas from the management rights and hand over the management rights to experienced and powerful market entities. Only in this way can the economic value of nature reserves be maximized. For example, after the establishment of Huangshan Tourism Co., Ltd., its protection fee investment soared from 2 million yuan a year to 25 million yuan after listing. As the reserve management agencies focus on the protection and management of natural resources in the reserve, they have also strengthened their management responsibilities and increased protection efforts. The original management agency had both development and protection powers, and acted as both athletes and referees in the development process. When the protection of natural resources conflicts with the economic interests of development, protection should be the first duty, but due to considerations immediate interests while abandoning the long-term interests of sustainable development of protected areas.

Assigning the management rights of scenic spots does not necessarily cause resource damage, but the real damage is often caused by poor planning, insufficient understanding, and inadequate supervision by government departments. Our country currently has no relevant legal regulations on the transfer of scenic spot management rights. The usual approach is for the enterprise to sign a development and operation agreement with the local competent authority where the scenic spot is located, and other stakeholders do not participate in the negotiation of the agreement. This can easily lead to damage to the interests of ecological resources or rent-seeking behavior. Therefore, it is first necessary to determine which ones can be transferred based on the different conditions of each protected area. During the transfer, all stakeholders should be involved, the operator's qualifications should be scientifically reviewed, and the operator's responsibilities and obligations should be clearly and carefully stipulated in the contract. For example, it is stipulated that a certain proportion of the company's operating income must be used for scenic area protection; after the contract expires, the level of scenic area protection must not be lower than a certain indicator; during the operation period, the overall planning of the scenic area should be strictly adhered to and should be based on the environmental carrying capacity. Reasonably determine the passenger flow; during the project expansion process, relevant national laws and regulations should be observed, and must undergo strict demonstration by relevant national parties and experts.

3. Establish relevant policy guidance mechanisms.

In the investment and development of protected areas, government investment should mainly focus on public welfare areas such as infrastructure construction and environmental protection, as well as public welfare areas where private capital is unwilling to intervene, while operational investment It can be realized by private capital. What private capital pursues is the maximization of interests. The government can constrain the behavior of enterprises through the guidance of the interest mechanism and give full play to its aspects that are conducive to resource protection. It can be found from the operating reports of some companies that use scenic spot resources to go public that companies that obtain management rights must pay business taxes and income taxes, and the funds raised by listed companies must make profits as soon as possible to return shareholders. Therefore, the companies have to invest funds in the most capable companies. And the fastest profitable areas are mainly hotels, amusement parks, etc. The development of nature reserves requires that artificial traces must be minimized. In this regard, relevant departments should grant development and operation entities certain preferential policies to stimulate and support the development of tourism, such as bank loans, tax exemptions, and technical guidance.

In terms of pollution control, environmental economic policies can be used to force companies to reduce pollution and damage to the ecological environment of protected areas. What our country currently mainly adopts is to levy sewage charges on the catering, entertainment, and service companies involved.

In addition, tax policies can also be used to encourage the recycling of waste in protected areas to minimize waste generation and improve the comprehensive utilization rate of resources; policy preferences or financial incentives should also be given to waste recyclers. According to statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 1996), the deposit-refund system in OECD countries is mainly used in beverage packaging. The return rate ranges from 40% to 100%, and the average return rate is nearly 80%. 5 At present, most tourist areas in my country have basically not promoted the deposit system, which shows that there is still a lot of room for development.