Objectives This research aimed at targeted strategies that were beneficial for both rural development and nature conservation adapted to the complexity of social-ecological systems in China’s National Parks, by delving into the ideology and practices of National Park Villages in the Republic of Korea that balanced conservation and community development.

Methods By using literature analysis and inductive methods, this research summarized the general management approaches of balancing human-land relationships and the operational mechanism of National Park Villages.

Results Korean National Parks conserved the complex natural-cultural heritages. They guaranteed the rights of residents in terms of presence, livelihood, and development through functional zoning and legislation. National Park Agency helped to develop the Premium Villages into social enterprises through combination of bottom-up applications and top-down incentives. This became an institutionalized approach to incentivize collective actions for communities to make full use of their natural and cultural heritages based on their historical and industrial features, innovating national park recreational experience and growing into sustainable villages with economic development, social stability, and cultural inheritance.

Conclusions The National Park Villages in the Republic of Korea represented an institutionalized approach to addressing rural development within the context of nature conservation management. The approach that coordinated management agency and rural communities, sought differentiated development, and developed village enterprises has sustained rural livelihood development and its stability from integrating nature and culture conservation. China’s National Parks can draw inspiration from the ideas and the realization. Seeking the interface between biodiversity conservation and rural revitalization strategy, governments should introduce market mechanism to fill the gaps of capital and capacity in rural operations to adapt to village endowments and development demands under conservation targets, thereby promoting village enterprises to spearhead the branding of national parks.