Advantageous and disadvantageous impacts of tourism development on the living of Li ethnic minority villagers in Hainan Island, China

Around the Mt. Wuzhishan in Hainan Island, China, tourism development has been rapidly progressed by the government and private companies since the 1980s, especially since the late 1990s, and consequently the living conditions of the Li ethnic minority people in Shuiman village, located in its center, have been drastically changing. As expected by the government, the villagers' income has increased by means of wage labors, selling the local products to the tourists, and compensatory payments for crops grown in the customary land when its use right was transferred to the company. Various changes in their lifestyle have contributed to the release from poverty and the overall improvement in basic human needs and primary health care. The villagers' flexible decision-makings on their living and environment use, with application of their traditional knowledge for resource uses, have been effective for sustainable human-environment relations, though further changes due to orders and requests of the government and companies may lead to environmental deterioration. Furthermore, inter-household differentiation in income and the perception on tourism development and agricultural development has been enlarged. These situations are discussed from the viewpoint of community-based sustainable development.