Building a unified Chinese national park system: Historical lessons learned from the United States

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The authors present a comparative historical analysis of the development and evolution of the national park systems in United States and China. The analysis is based on 10 years of research focusing on national park system development in both countries, along with data collected during a recent Fulbright collaborative research project. The analysis begins with a comprehensive historical review of the U.S. national park system development from the 1870 s to the present. The authors describe how over time a cohesive national system emerged that unifies 401 diverse park units. By comparison, the authors then describe the process by which over the past four decades of increasing openness to the outside world, the Chinese government constructed and implemented a decentralized and heterogeneous national park system distributed across multiple government agencies. Still early in its development, the system is characterized by disparate policy and nomenclature frameworks reflecting the varying goals and priorities of the agencies. The authors conclude with three points. First, the global national park movement has been shaped by mutual learning between nations, resulting in a unique form of land use that combines environment protection with sustainable development for human benefit. Second, as an early adopter and innovator, the experience and management information accumulated about the U.S. national park system serves as a useful example for the rest of the world. Third, as a late adopter, the national park system in China has evolved in a decentralized fashion across government departments and agents, leading to inefficiencies, lack of cohesion, and limited effectiveness. The authors conclude by calling for government policy- makers and academics to engage in a multi-partner dialogue aimed at normalizing the national park management regime,building support for thoughtful policy development by the top- levels of government, and suspension of national park pilot projects until a more unified and cohesive vision for the Chinese national park system is agreed upon.