Current trends of ecotourism in China's nature reserves: A review of the Chinese literature

•Chinese publications on ecotourism in nature reserves since early 1990s•We identified six key themes.•Scientific foundation for development of China's ecotourism•Need to provide guidelines and methods for implementation

Ecotourism in China's nature reserves has been a focus of domestic scholarship for over two decades. Our review detailed the most pressing themes and gaps in the existing literature. The extant research had six key themes: description of ecological values; ecotourism development planning; evaluation of resources and sustainability; management and operation; general notes on ecotourism; and integration of local communities into reserve management. We found lack of research on how best to integrate communities into decision making processes, increase public awareness on the needs for environmental protection, build capacity among communities, and create more effective institutional and legal systems to deal with nature reserves. We concluded that the development of China's ecotourism needs a robust scientific grounding that will create a foundation which can take into account economic development, but is ultimately based on environmental protection and biodiversity conservation objectives.