Different people, different wild: Comparing and mapping wilderness representation in Wuyishan National Park, China

Abstract

It is essential to better integrate wilderness representations of different stakeholders into wilderness conservation. The way in which local residents and other stakeholders frame the construction of wilderness of protected areas in developing countries are poorly understood. In these areas, land use policy and decision may lead to conflicts. This study aims to explore existing public wilderness representations using a questionnaire survey (n = 514) administered amongst tourists and other stakeholders in the Wuyishan National Park, in southeast China. The spatial differences in public representations of wilderness across different stakeholder groups were compared against expert knowledge. We found that integrated wilderness representation maps of different stakeholder groups were consistent, namely ‘area where wild animals live’, ‘area with no human influence’, ‘a barren and lonely area’. However, three sub-representations of the individual stakeholders varied significantly. Moreover, expert-based wilderness mapping did not reflect public representations accurately, and an integrated wilderness quality map considering wilderness representations across both stakeholders and experts can better identify detailed wilderness areas. Our study provides new insights and technical support for future exploration of wilderness conservation and mapping in China and other countries with insufficient awareness of wilderness values and investigations in a regional scale.