School of Humanities, Economics and Laws, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 710072, China.
School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 710049, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Feb 25;757:143814. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143814. Epub 2020 Nov 19.
Ecotourism has long been considered as a means of ecological conservation. However, local residents' disturbances to ecosystem were often ignored and inadequately studied. This paper examined whether and how local residents' participation in ecotourism affected their ecological behaviors by using the survey data of ecotourism demonstration villages in western China and PLS-SEM method to correct measurement misspecification. The results showed that different forms of ecotourism participation affected ecological behaviors in different ways. Decision participation brought the strongest and positive effects on ecological perception, but failed to transform into actual ecological behaviors. Capital participation's influence on ecological behaviors was positive, direct, and multidimensional. Business participation directly reduced intensity of resource use, but this effect was counteracted by the increase of economic perception and the reverse effects it induced. It indicated the opportunities and challenges for ecotourism to realize its eco-goal, as well as the strategies to relax the constraints.
生态旅游长期以来被视为一种生态保护手段。然而，人们往往忽视了当地居民对生态系统的干扰，对其研究也不够充分。本研究通过对中国西部生态旅游示范村的调查数据，运用偏最小二乘结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）方法校正测量模型的设定偏误，考察了当地居民参与生态旅游对其生态行为的影响。结果表明，不同形式的生态旅游参与对生态行为的影响方式不同。决策参与对生态感知的影响最大且为正向，但未能转化为实际的生态行为。资本参与对生态行为的影响是正向的、直接的和多维的。商业参与直接降低了资源使用强度，但经济感知的增加及其产生的反向效应抵消了这种影响。这表明生态旅游实现其生态目标既有机遇也有挑战，需要采取相应的策略来缓解各种限制。
