. 2006, 24(0607): 68-71.
Nature reserves play an important role in the evolving challenge of maintaining a sustainable world. Visitors are one of the major causes of ecosystem damage. To ensure the sustainability of these ecosystems, the damage impact of visitors must be managed. First, this paper discusses the development of visitor management concept. In the beginning, one popular approach to visitor management is carrying capacity. However,carrying capacity is neither simple nor particularly useful. In the 1980s, visitor management frameworks, such as the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) planning system, was developed. The latter one is more effective than the former one in practice. Next,the theory of visitor management is explored in this paper. Alden suggested education programs aimed at changing visitor behavior might be more effective than solely through use limits. Limiting use is only one of many management options. Finally, an overview of eleven principles of visitor management is presented. These ...更多principles have emerged from researches on visitor impacts and from the management of protected areas to minimize those impacts. According to these principles and the practices in Baihuashan nature reserve, the paper put forward six principles of visitor management, which provide a sound basis for the systematic planning system for natural area visitor management in China.
