**1. Introduction**

A community is "a group of people who share a geographic area and are bound together by common culture, values, race, or social class" [1] (p. 356). In World Heritage Site (WHS) destinations, a "community" refers to the residents within a WHS area who are instrumental in

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reviving the WHS. Community participation constitutes a relationship, established by the members of the community, through their collaboration in achieving common goals and making the community a better place in which to live [2]. Community participation in heritage management can settle conflicts between the needs and interests of residents—between the pursuit of a better quality of life and economic development—and WHS conservation [3]. *The Charter for the Conservation of Historic Towns and Urban Areas* recognises the value of communi‐ ty participation thusly, "The participation and the involvement of the residents are essential for the success of the conservation programme and should be encouraged" [4] (p. 2). Further‐ more, *The Burra Charter* stresses that heritage conservation is only sustainable with the partici‐ pation of the community [5] (Article 12).

Community participation in WHS conservation and the development of heritage tourism has been the focus of several studies [6–10]. Community participation in WHS conservation and tourism development is essential for reviving WHS destinations and for sustaining their development into the future [7,10]. The participation of local residents in WHS heritage management and tourism development contributes toward improving their quality of life and, at the same time, the sustainable conservation of the heritage site itself [3,6,7]. In addition, the participation of local residents improves their sense of belonging, develops social networks, and inculcates a greater appreciation and understanding for the value of the local area [6,7,9,11,12].

Three types of community participation can be identified in the context of tourism develop‐ ment and heritage management: coercive participation, induced participation, and spontane‐ ous participation [13–17]. Coercive community participation refers to the lowest level of participation in which residents have no power over the course of the tourism development. Their involvement is limited to various predefined activities revolving around tourism destination promotion and they receive few economic benefits [16]. In induced community participation, although local residents have a say in the heritage management and tourism development process, they have no actual power or control over the decisions being made by those in positions of authority [16,18]. In spontaneous participation, local residents have the power to make decisions and control the development process [16,17].

Notwithstanding, the involvement of local communities in WHS conservation and tourism development is contingent upon a variety of factors that may either facilitate or hinder their involvement. Local communities must be aware of the value of the WHS in which they inhabit and have the necessary knowledge and skills with which to take advantage of tourism development and conservation opportunities. That said, some incentives might be necessary to motivate local residents to engage with tourism development and conservation processes, lest these opportunities are allowed to pass them by. The perception of benefits in the inscrip‐ tion of a site as a WHS and tourism development can serve to encourage residents to participate in tourism development and WHS conservation.

This study aims to synthesise the community participation literature to date in the context of WHSs. Notwithstanding, the participation preferences of residents may vary according to the circumstance of the destination [19,20]. The current study, therefore, focuses exclusively on rural WHS destinations to explore community involvement and identify how local authorities and correspondent organisations can best go about involving residents in the sustainable development of WHS destinations. The remainder of this chapter is organised as follows. In the next section, we explain our methods for conducting this systematic review of the literature. We review and analyse the existing literature with respect to community participation in WHS conservation and tourism development, various types of community participation, and factors influencing community participation in rural WHSs. Following the literature review and analysis, we undertake a discussion of our findings. We conclude this paper by outlining the theoretical and practical implications of this study and offer a number of recommendations for future research.
