When wildlife damage threatens livelihoods: why national park residents consider a transition to tourism
- 1School of Management, Putian University, Putian, China
- 2Institute of Geography, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, China
- 3School of Geographical Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, China
Abstract
Wildlife damage is often expected to push national park residents toward new sources of income, but the appraisals that turn damage into a willingness to move into tourism remain unclear. Drawing on protection motivation theory and questionnaire data from 513 residents in and around the Wuyishan City section of Wuyishan National Park, China, this study distinguishes perceived tourism adaptive efficacy from tourism self-efficacy and examines how these two beliefs relate to intentions to shift household livelihoods toward tourism. Greater perceived wildlife damage was related to stronger threat appraisal of traditional livelihoods. Residents who perceived greater livelihood threat also reported stronger transition intentions and were more likely to view tourism as a workable livelihood alternative. However, no clear relationship emerged between livelihood threat and tourism self-efficacy, although both adaptive efficacy and self-efficacy were positively related to transition intention. As a moderator, perceived tourism development opportunity was more relevant to adaptive efficacy than to self-efficacy. When residents perceived greater tourism opportunities, the positive relationship between livelihood threat and adaptive efficacy was stronger, as was the corresponding indirect relationship with transition intention. In contrast, perceived opportunity made little difference to the relationship involving self-efficacy. These findings suggest that livelihood threat was associated with greater perceived usefulness and feasibility of tourism without a corresponding association with residents’ confidence in their own ability to engage in tourism activities. Policies aimed at encouraging livelihood diversification in national park communities may therefore need to combine the creation of tourism opportunities with training, skills development, and other forms of support that strengthen residents’ capacity to participate.
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BibTeX
@article{zheng2026when,
title = {{When wildlife damage threatens livelihoods: why national park residents consider a transition to tourism}},
author = {Boming Zheng and Boming Zheng and Dandan Cai and Xinhua Qi and Xinhua Qi},
journal = {Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fevo.2026.1986333},
url = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2026.1986333},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - When wildlife damage threatens livelihoods: why national park residents consider a transition to tourism
AU - Boming Zheng
AU - Boming Zheng
AU - Dandan Cai
AU - Xinhua Qi
AU - Xinhua Qi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
DO - 10.3389/fevo.2026.1986333
UR - https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2026.1986333
AB - Wildlife damage is often expected to push national park residents toward new sources of income, but the appraisals that turn damage into a willingness to move into tourism remain unclear. Drawing on protection motivation theory and questionnaire data from 513 residents in and around the Wuyishan City section of Wuyishan National Park, China, this study distinguishes perceived tourism adaptive efficacy from tourism self-efficacy and examines how these two beliefs relate to intentions to shift household livelihoods toward tourism. Greater perceived wildlife damage was related to stronger threat appraisal of traditional livelihoods. Residents who perceived greater livelihood threat also reported stronger transition intentions and were more likely to view tourism as a workable livelihood alternative. However, no clear relationship emerged between livelihood threat and tourism self-efficacy, although both adaptive efficacy and self-efficacy were positively related to transition intention. As a moderator, perceived tourism development opportunity was more relevant to adaptive efficacy than to self-efficacy. When residents perceived greater tourism opportunities, the positive relationship between livelihood threat and adaptive efficacy was stronger, as was the corresponding indirect relationship with transition intention. In contrast, perceived opportunity made little difference to the relationship involving self-efficacy. These findings suggest that livelihood threat was associated with greater perceived usefulness and feasibility of tourism without a corresponding association with residents’ confidence in their own ability to engage in tourism activities. Policies aimed at encouraging livelihood diversification in national park communities may therefore need to combine the creation of tourism opportunities with training, skills development, and other forms of support that strengthen residents’ capacity to participate.
SN - 2296-701X
ER -