Community Participation in Ecotourism —A Case of Incorporating the Fish Road Historic Trail and Bayan Community in the Yangmingshan National Park

This study discusses the process and problems of promoting community participation in ecotourism in the national park. We took the ecotourism spot, Fish Road Historic Trail and Bayan Community in the Yangmingshan National Park, for the case study. The grounded theory of qualitative research, literature review, participant-observation and in-depth interviews were used to thoroughly analyze how the community participation in ecotourism was carried out by the Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters. There are important findings in this research as below.
1.The participation has not been performed well. The community participation is one step of a top-down policy promoted by the Headquarters. However, the residents poorly participated and knew very little about the ecotourism promotion there. While the ecotourism spot was selected, the participation was done. It can be sure that the promoted policy now cannot make the community participation in ecotourism workable in the national park.
2.The management structure of national park institution has not been adjusted to the promotion. The division of the institution still could not match the community participation procedure. Under the circumstance of unobvious authority, the participation could be ignored easily.
3.The participant residents have raised their identification with the Headquarters and local culture. As a result, we can be sure that there is some achievement of the community participation the Headquarters have made.
These results suggest that in order to improve the promotion, there should be enough time for mutaul communication among decision-makers, the Park Headquarters, and community, suitable training of park personnel, and appropriate ajustment for the National Park institutional structure.