Assessing the Credibility of National Park Concession Systems: A Community Residents’ Perspective Based on Evidence from Wuyishan National Park, China

A well-developed national park scheme is of great significance in ensuring the sustainability of the ecological environment and addressing the risks of community green development. As a key mechanism for the transformation of ecological product value, the implementation and optimization of the concession system contribute to the coordinated development of national park protection and community interests. How to promote the transition of national park concession from “system establishment” to “system efficiency improvement” is an important issue in system optimization, and the key to solving this issue is to assessing the credibility of national park concession systems in the community. Community residents are important stakeholders in the national park concession system, and their perception of this system’s credibility reflects its levels of rationality, efficiency and sustainability. This study takes residents of four villages in Wuyishan National Park as an example, obtains data through a questionnaire survey, and uses linear regression analysis to study the influencing factors of residents’ credibility of national park concession systems from five aspects, including household location, demographic characteristics, functional perceptions of the concession system, normative perceptions of the concession system, and expectation perceptions of the concession system. The results show that: (1) Residents show different perceptions of the concession system in national parks; they generally believe that it conforms to the collective interests and should be permanent. (2) The normative perceptions and expectation perceptions of the concession system in national parks have a significant positive impact on its credibility. Furthermore, age and educational attainment significantly influence residents’ perceptions of the system’s credibility. The impact of household location on the credibility of national park concession systems is not significant.