Conservation Practices in the United States' Great Smoky Mountains and Their Implications for the World Heritage Tea Cultural Landscape of Jingmai Mountain in Pu'er, China.

The protection of natural ecosystems and cultural landscapes has increasingly emerged as a key concern in World Heritage studies. In 2023, Jingmai Mountain in Pu'er, Yunnan, China, was inscribed on the World Heritage List as the world's first cultural heritage site with tea culture as its central theme. Its Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) lies primarily in the well-preserved ancient tea forests and in the long-standing "human-tea-forest" symbiotic system shaped and sustained by the resident Blang and Dai ethnic communities. By contrast, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the United States was designated a World Natural Heritage Site in 1983, renowned for its exceptional biodiversity, ecosystem integrity, and mature conservation practices. This paper focuses on the conservation practices of the Great Smoky Mountains and, based on a preliminary comparison of the two heritage sites, explores how the park's experiences--in terms of conservation objectives, scientific monitoring, community and volunteer participation, tourism management, education, and international outreach--may provide valuable insights and reference models for the protection, development, and management of Jingmai Mountain and other cultural landscape heritage sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]