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This study utilizes criteria and indicators to propose a set of sustainable evaluation methods for ecotourism destinations based on perception. The questionnaires are designed according to the index system of sustainable evaluation. Taking Malaysia's Pulau Perhentian and China's Weizhou Island as examples, the method is verified and the coordinated development path of island resource protection and ecotourism in two marine parks is proposed according to the results of sustainability evaluation. In this study, 126 valid questionnaires were gotten from Weizhou Island Marine Park (WZMP) in China and 125 from Pulau Perhentian Marine Park (PPMP) in Malaysia. The outcomes show that PPMP has a higher sustainable development index, and both resource protection index and ecotourism development index are higher than WZMP. To the extent the subtypes of coordinated development are concerned, PPMP is underdeveloped, that is, the broadness and profundity of the tourism industry advancement are insufficient to coordinate its resource level, while WZMP belongs to over-development type. In the decision of development path, WZMP ought to adopt a protection priority mode, while PPMP is suitable for the development priority mode. The effects of this study give valuable information for the planning and management of marine parks and establish a framework for effective management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The paper analyzes problems in Marine Park management and put forward suggestions for improvement based on differences of social value about Marine Park ecosystem services between Pulau Payar Marine Park (PPMP) in Malaysia and Gili Matra Marine Park (GMMP) in Indonesia. The purpose is to construct the connectivity of ecology, social economy, culture and system, and to study the management of marine protected areas (MPAs) from a broader perspective. The survey method used in this study is similar to that of 'SolVES' method, which aims to assess relative importance of social value for Marine Park and discuss people's attitudes towards the future development of Marine Park and management of Marine Park. We selected purposive sampling survey according to the occupation category, and obtained 109 and 102 valid questionnaires in PPMP and GMMP respectively. In this study, four sets of questions, including familiarity with Marine Park, attitude toward use of Marine Park, understanding of social-value of Marine Park and personal profile, were designed to analyze differences between PPMP in Malaysia and GMMP in Indonesia. For both Marine Parks Biological Diversity Value (B) was scored the highest among all ten social-values. The participation rate of marine education in both Marine Parks are relatively low; both of them are no more than 35%. Compared with locals, tourists value biodiversity more, and while comparison among different occupations, civil servants value biodiversity more than other occupations. Through on-the-spot investigation and sorting out the management problems of marine parks reflected by respondents, we found that: (a) the weakness of basic education and lack of popular science publicity and education activities have caused the level of public's awareness of environmental protection to be not high enough; (b) the relative insufficiency of tourism infrastructure and increase in number of tourists in recent years, might have caused many problems such as destroying coral reef resources and littering. Some suggestions were put forward to solve the problem: (a) promote public awareness of environmental protection through popular science publicity and education; (b) for PPMP, the restriction on the number of tourists will benefit the protection of coral, while improving infrastructure, such as garbage collection, will help improve environmental pollution; (c) for GMMP, strengthening the synergy between local and central governments will help to deal with the relationship between land use and environmental protection and highlight environmental protection functions. Highlights • The cognition of Biological Diversity Value is related to education. • Higher familiarity, more urgent to develop local infrastructure facilities. • Carry out popular science education to improve environmental protection awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]