Understanding stakeholder perceptions of environmental justice: a study of tourism in the Erhai Lake basin, Yunnan province, China

Environmental justice is an important component of sustainable tourism, but stakeholder perspectives related to environmental justice may vary. Using Q-methodology, we investigated different stakeholder perceptions related to environmental justice within the context of tourism and ecological restoration. Specifically, in the Erhai Lake basin, China, we explore perspectives around an ecological restoration effort that included the government mandated closure of 1900 establishments (inns and restaurants) in response to environmental degradation. We identify and explore four environmental justice perspectives: the togetherness, protection, operator loss, and local loss perspectives. These four perspectives are contextualized within three dimensions of environmental justice (i.e., distribution, recognition, and participation). Our findings highlight differing views related to who is affected most by the inn closures (e.g., future generations, local residents, inn owners), and general consensus related to the outcomes of the process being more important than the process itself. Finally, we discuss potential reasons for these differing perspectives and recommend ways to improve environmental justice among different stakeholders. This research can facilitate sustainable development of tourism by highlighting the facets of ecological restoration policy implementation most important to stakeholders, including recognition of diverse stakeholder concerns and identities, clear and well supported rationale for policy design, and increased equity in the distribution of costs and benefits of policies.