Exploring the historical evolution of tourism-environment interaction in protected area: A case study of Mt. Bogda

Protected areas have a double mandate of both protection and use. Nature-based tourism is considered an effective tool in terms of environmental conservation. Understanding the causes and consequences of a spatiotemporal succession of tourism construction is an important channel to explore the changes of tourism-environment interaction in the protected area. To analyze the spatio-temporal variations in tourism construction lands, we adopted Mt. Bogda as an example. We systematically quantified the interaction between these changes and environmental variables and explored the evolution process of tourism-environment interaction of the mountainous protected area in the northwest arid region. Our results revealed the following: (1) In the Bogda protected area, the proportion of tourism construction lands first appeared to be increasing, then decreasing dramatically, and finally growing slowly. The spatial expansion of tourism construction lands followed the core-periphery pattern, respectively showing shapely infilling, reasonable agglomeration, barycenter shift, and outlying growth from 1990 to 2018 as the stages of concentrating on the core. (2) The higher land-use intensity of tourism construction drove the changes of landscape fragmentation, diversity, stability, primitive, and nature degree in the protected area. The coupling coordination between tourism and the environment in the Bogda area decreased at first, and then slowly increased. Meanwhile, tourism did not cause irreversible damage to the natural environment, and the coupling coordination degree between tourism and the environment was still in the state of balanced development. It expressed the states of original balanced, development exceeds environment and barely balanced, and superiorly balanced. The historical evolution of tourism-environment interaction in Bogda reflects the pattern of periodic changes in China's protected areas to a certain extent.

Automated summary

Protected areas have a dual mandate of protecting and utilizing their resources. Nature-based tourism is considered effective for environmental conservation. Studying the spatiotemporal succession of tourism construction helps understand changes in tourism-environment interaction. Using Mt. Bogda as an example, we quantified the interaction between tourism construction and environmental factors, revealing changes in the protected area's landscape and the evolution of tourism-environment interaction over time. Our findings indicate that tourism construction initially increased, then decreased dramatically, and eventually grew slowly in the Bogda protected area. The spatial expansion followed a core-periphery pattern, with different stages of concentration on the core. The high land-use intensity of tourism construction influenced landscape fragmentation, diversity, stability, primitiveness, and the degree of nature in the area. The coupling coordination between tourism and the environment initially decreased but slowly increased. The interaction between tourism and the environment did not cause irreversible damage, suggesting a state of balanced development. This study provides insights into the pattern of periodic changes in China's protected areas.