Extreme Seasons and Extreme Visitation: The Case of Changbai Mountain Biosphere Reserve

Changbai Mountain Biosphere Reserve in the northeast of China was established for its biodiversity and ecological significance. Local communities traditionally used the natural resources of the Reserve area through harvesting and hunting of forest products. With Reserve declaration, this subsistence use of resources was banned, and communities were greatly affected by the regulations but moved towards gaining income from tourism. During the past two decades tourist numbers during the summer months have grown from less than 30,000 per year in the 1980s to more than half a million in 2006. Local communities have benefited economically from the increased tourism activity, but its extreme seasonality has also brought community disruption. The extremes of Changbai precipitated provincial government action to alter governance arrangements with the purpose of facilitating orderly tourism development and environmental protection. This paper reports the success of this innovation and highlights the need for the new governance structure to plan for its transition from a development-driven agency towards a community-servicing and tourism management agency.