Community residents have a strong stake in a local heritage site and may be an important force in its conservation, management and development. Positive relationships between the heritage site and community residents can promote its protection. A questionnaire survey was conducted with local residents of Bogda World Natural Heritage, Xinjiang, China, to assess their perceptions towards the World Natural Heritage, and their attitudes towards participation in heritage conservation. The local residents have made positive contributions to the conservation of heritage resource in the past several years. However, because of the asymmetry between responsibility for conservation and benefit sharing, the authors recommend that a “Community co-management framework” should be established to mobilize residents to participate in heritage conservation. Furthermore, participatory approaches and communication mechanisms are suggested to promote sustainable relationships between community development and heritage conservation. The empirical study can be used as an input to policy making and management for sustainable conservation, and the study contributes to the literature related to community participation at heritage sites.