Abstract:
This article carried out a top-down analysis and a method of “snowball sampling” to investigate and identify stakeholders of the Laojun Mountain area of Funiu Mountain National Nature Reserve in Henan province for relieving the conflicts between protection and exploitation of the nature reserve and understanding stakeholder relationships. It analyzed the social network on stakeholder interest/influence relationships. Then, it concluded that the scenic area of Laojun Mountain developing natural resources is at the core of the network. Results showed that the authority of the Laojun Mountain area was the intergrade stakeholder of the network and had limited power in the overlapping zone of the nature reserve and scenic area. Furthermore, the rest of the stakeholders had little impact on network members and had loose relationships with them. In addition, the status of stakeholders in the network decreased as the distance from the nature reserve and their activities inceased. It suggested that the administrative department could build a stakeholder co-management institution using characteristics of a relationship network, enhance the administration authority of nature reserve and control behaviors of developers, and also strengthen intergrade and peripheral stakeholder influences on ecological protection to promote nature reserve sustainability.