Tourism-induced land acquisition in protected areas: Land rent dynamics and state monopoly rent around the Wulingyuan world heritage site in China

Tension between nature conservation, green grabbing, land acquisition for tourism, and value grabbing highlight a significant yet understudied area: the underlying land rent mechanisms and the state's role in driving green land acquisition for tourism. Using Marxian land rent theory, we explored how ‘state monopoly rent’ is produced by tourism-induced green land acquisition and the consequent displacement and resettlement of communities in and around the Wulingyuan World Heritage. State actors actively acquired land and land use rights for tourism development to maximise the rent gap despite, and perhaps because of, national nature conservation priorities and restrictions. State actors are a key player in the political economy of tourism by directly capitalizing on potential land rent in China. • Green land acquisition and tourism development reinforce each other. • Tourism destinations & protected areas are prime locations to generate monopoly rent. • Governments use planning and resettlement as strategies to capture land rent. • State monopoly rent derives from land characteristics and the power of government. • Governments devise ways to extract profit from tourism in protected areas.