Achieving equitable governance by developing a systematic plan

Full Solution

Achieving equitable governance by developing a systematic plan

by Alisa Chen

Huangshan Scenic Area Administrative Committee

Mount Huangshan Scenic Area © Marie Fischborn

Published: 28 September 2016

Last edited: 31 May 2022

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Summary

After decades of management, Huangshan has developed a plan system based on the Master Plan of Huangshan Scenic Area, the most important and basis plan with legal effect. The plan system is for every part of work and clear responsibilities and tasks for different departments, balancing protection and development. Multiple plans address different issues, including resource protection, finance and tourism, developed with expert input. Community cooperation is given top priority to ensure proper implementation. The legal status of the plan, concerted management with communities, and adequate government funding has ensured the full implementation of the plans.

Classifications

Region

East Asia

Scale of implementation

Local

Ecosystem

Forest ecosystems

Temperate deciduous forest

Theme

Forest Management

Local actors

Protected and conserved areas governance

Protected and conserved areas management planning

Challenges

Infrastructure development

Changes in socio-cultural context

Lack of public and decision maker’s awareness

Poor monitoring and enforcement

Poor governance and participation

Sustainable development goals

SDG 11 – Sustainable cities and communities

Location

Huangshan Scenic Area, Huangshan, Anhui, China

Find out more about the protected area where this solution has been implemented on Protected Planet.

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Challenges

Huangshan Nature Reserve, a World Heritage site, member of global geopark network, and a national scenic area, is obliged to safeguard the ecosystem’s integrity, while making them accessible to visitors and help improve the living conditions of the neighborhood communities through proper development Management practice in the past indicates that negative impact on the natural resources will incur without a concerted and scientifically designed plan. Willful or short-sighted construction will pose great threat to the sustainable development.

Beneficiaries

1.Staff in the nature reserve. 2.Tourists. 3. Neighboring communities.

Building blocks

How do the building blocks interact?

The Master Plan has involved the participation of the local community, including land planning, community development and other issues related. Thus, our master plan has legal status, and the rights of community are declared. It protects community’s right and is helpful for communicating with community. Communities can understand and help implement the Master Plan because it has respected their interests and helped with their development.

Impacts

1.Resource protection: according to investigation and monitoring, the forest coverage rate of Huangshan has increased from 56% in the 1970s to 98% now. The instantaneous value of negative oxygen ion concentration in air has the highest peak value of 267000 per cm3. There are 1805 species of advanced plants and 323 species of vertebrates, and the species population size is stable. The 1019 units of physical landscape resources listed in our protection objectives have been well protected. Based on 2009, the total electricity and water consumption within our scenic area is reduced by 20%.

2. Tourism development. In the decade before the Covid-pandemic (2010-2019), the average annual growth rate of tourists was 3.73%, and the average growth rate of tourism revenue was 7.27%.

3. Community development. There are 1225 small and medium-sized enterprises in our community. Our management committee has maintained close relations with nearly 200 travel agencies and more than 300 other affiliates (transportation, hotel, shopping malls and interpretation companies), making them realize that jointly protecting Huangshan is to protect their common interests.

Story

When we made our geopark plan, we would discuss details with different departments in our own management body as well as experts and community. This plan also sets a standard for community development. There are lots of restaurants and hotels around the park. To supervise and maintain the quality, we communicate with them, introduce our geopark concept and the positive impact for them, and advise them to use the geopark standard. If one has high quality services, he will be recognized and branded with the Geopark logo.

Pictures

Promoting the Master Plan © Huangshan Scenic Area Administrative Committee

Communication with community © Huangshan Scenic Area Administrative Committee

joint inspection with police © Huangshan Scenic Area Administrative Committee

Contributed by

Alisa Chen Huangshan Scenic Area Administrative Committee

Other contributors

Wei LI

Huangshan Scenic Area Administrative Committee

Alisa CHEN

Huangshan Scenic Area Administrative Committee

Resources

Links

Geopark website

Other Organizations

Huangshan Scenic Area Administrative Committee

Portals

This solution is published in the PANORAMA Conservation Areas and PANORAMA Nature-Culture community.

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