[Perception and attitude of rural community to the construction of Asian elephant conservation corridors in Xishuangbanna].
By using contingent valuation method (CVM), an investigation was made from November 2007 to March 2008 on the perception and attitude of 196 households in 5 villages within 2 planned Asian elephant conservation corridors in Xishuangbanna to the construction of the corridors. 80.61% of the interviewees conditionally supported the corridors construction. The main factors affecting the interviewees' support willingness included their education level, per capita income, and perceptions to Asian elephant protection, human-elephant relations, and corridor utilization patterns and its beneficiaries, among which, the interviewees' awareness of Asian elephant conservation, corridor utilization patterns, and corridor beneficiaries had strong influence on the support willingness, with the correlation coefficient being 0.231, 0.236, and -0.304, respectively. The rural community holding the land tenure played a key role in the corridors construction. To effectively design and planning the construction of biological conservation corridor, it is necessary to have a deep understanding on the perceptions and attitudes of rural community to the construction of the corridor and to obtain their support and participation for this construction.
Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China. lizhengling_009@126.com
Zheng-Ling
ZL
Li
Ming-Yong
MY
Chen
Zhao-Lu
ZL
Wu
Qian
Q
Wang
Yong-Hua
YH
Dong
D000818:Animals; D001290:Attitude; D002681:China; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D004606:Elephants; D012424:Rural Population