Moving toward a Greener China: Is China’s National Park Pilot Program a Solution?

Gonghan Sheng,Heyuan Chen,Yujun Zhang,Kalifi Ferretti-Gallon,John L. Innes,Guangyu Wang,Zhongjun Wang

doi:10.3390/land9120489

Gonghan Sheng, Heyuan Chen + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/land9120489

Copy DOI

Journal: Land	Publication Date: Dec 2, 2020
Citations: 11	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of British Columbia, Beijing Forestry University

Abstract

National parks have been adopted for over a century to enhance the protection of valued natural landscapes in countries worldwide. For decades, China has emphasized the importance of economic growth over ecological health to the detriment of its protected areas. After decades of environmental degradation, dramatic loss of biodiversity, and increasing pressure from the public to improve and protect natural landscapes, China’s central government recently proposed the establishment of a pilot national park system to address these issues. This study provides an overview of the development of selected conventional protected areas (CPAs) and the ten newly established pilot national parks (PNPs). A literature review was conducted to synthesize the significant findings from previous studies, and group workshops were conducted to integrate expert knowledge. A qualitative analysis was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot national park system. The results of this study reveal that the PNP system could be a potential solution to the two outstanding issues facing CPAs, namely the economic prioritization over social and ecological considerations that causes massive ecological degradation, and the conflicting, overlapping, and inconsistent administrative and institutional structures that result in serious inefficiencies and conflicts.

Highlights

IntroductionThe use of national parks as a significant tool for nature conservation and wilderness preservation has been adopted globally by most countries and utilized to achieve ecological protection and biodiversity restoration [4]
National parks have played an important role worldwide in protecting natural landscapes [1,2,3].The use of national parks as a significant tool for nature conservation and wilderness preservation has been adopted globally by most countries and utilized to achieve ecological protection and biodiversity restoration [4].Despite the multiple policies to address ecological issues, biodiversity in China continues to decline [5]
The key indicators that determine whether an area can be officially categorized as a national park by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) include area, resource class, human footprint index, and functional complexity [77]

Summary

Introduction

The use of national parks as a significant tool for nature conservation and wilderness preservation has been adopted globally by most countries and utilized to achieve ecological protection and biodiversity restoration [4]. In 2008, the Chinese government took a step towards improving the quality of protected areas with the approval of China’s first national park management office and introduced a pilot national park system in 2015. This initiative is regarded as an experimental application of an international model of national parks, with the expectation that these parks can better serve to protect biodiversity and promote human livelihood [7]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion