Objectives Heritage community management is an important issue in protecting World Natural Heritage Sites. It is of the utmost importance to comprehend the impact of community activities on World Natural Heritage Sites from an ecological standpoint in order to ensure the protection of their outstanding universal value (OUV).

Methods A systematic statistical and analytical approach was conducted on Chinese literature regarding the impact of communities in China's World Natural and Mixed Heritage Sites, along with the evaluation reports on the conservation status of World Heritage properties. By integrating spatial analysis statistics, the study identified the characteristics of communities in China's natural heritage sites and the relationships between them. It also discriminated the types of community activities and their associated impacts.

Results The results showed that the presence of community had both positive and negative implications for the natural heritage sites. According to the statistics of negative impacts, there were 4 categories and 30 types of community activities. Tourism reception and pollution caused by community life accounted for 66.7% and 66.1% of all natural and mixed heritage sites in China respectively. The stable social structure and protective beliefs of heritage site communities, the positive interaction between humans and nature, and the unique human-land culture have a positive effect on the sustainable protection of heritage site value.

Conclusions Community activities exerted a significant dual impact on China's World Natural Heritage Sites, exhibiting both positive and negative effects. The study’s recommendations are as follows: (1) Enhance the environmental impact assessment system and reinforce precise control over community activities; (2) Augment dynamic monitoring capabilities and improve community self-monitoring abilities; (3) Strengthen multi-faceted community participation and stimulate community protection efforts; (4) Prioritize human-land culture and maintain a positive interactive relationship between humans and nature; and (5) Implement adaptive management to sustain harmonious symbiosis between humans and nature in natural heritage sites. These measures aim to mitigate the negative impacts of community activities on World Natural Heritage Sites while optimize their positive effects.