Abstract
With the continued growth of protected areas (PAs) in China in terms of the number, coverage and varieties of protected objects, how to efficiently manage the protected areas to ensure both resource protection and environmental protection has become a crucial research question. By applying a geographic perspective in an analysis of the development and evolution of protected areas in China, this paper presents the results of an analysis focused on the status and the types of current approaches to the management of natural protected areas to reveal the problems that exist in their management and to further explore an integration strategy for the protected area network. It proposes that the future management of protected areas should prioritize their legal status, the sustainable livelihood of individuals living in close proximity to them, and the establishment of a unified database to achieve grid and information management of the protected areas.
Highlights
At present, the global biosphere is suffering from severe impacts imposed by the most extensive extinction of species since the Cenozoic era, making the loss of biodiversity one of the most importantSustainability 2015, 7 environmental problems facing the world [1,2]
Since the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992, multiple national governments around the world have agreed that the creation of natural protected areas (PAs) is a powerful method to cope with the destruction of biological diversity and ensure the restoration of the fragile ecological system and the sustainable utilization of natural resources [8,9]
The Chinese government has resorted to a departmental management system based on the types of objects being protected in addition to a hierarchical management system that is aligned with administrative divisions
Summary
The global biosphere is suffering from severe impacts imposed by the most extensive extinction of species since the Cenozoic era, making the loss of biodiversity one of the most important. Since the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992, multiple national governments around the world have agreed that the creation of natural PAs is a powerful method to cope with the destruction of biological diversity and ensure the restoration of the fragile ecological system and the sustainable utilization of natural resources [8,9]. Given the unsound network layout of PAs in China and the insufficient research to date on rational distribution, effective management, the representativeness of protection and other aspects [22,23], this paper reveals the major problems encountered by the current system of natural PAs in China from a geographic perspective by basing the analysis on the evolving pattern of PAs with the aim of developing a strategy for the integration of PAs into a network
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