National Park System Pilot Research Articles

The Impact of National Park Construction on the Livelihood Capital of Original Residents: A Case Study of the Qilian Mountain National Park System Pilot

The Impact of National Park Construction on the Livelihood Capital of Original Residents: A Case Study of the Qilian Mountain National Park System Pilot

Exploring Livelihood Strategies of Farmers and Herders and Their Human Well-Being in Qilian Mountain National Park, China

National parks have implemented restrictive measures on human activities to protect the ecological environment, which has changed the livelihood dependence and strategies of farmers and herders. Exploring the impact of livelihood strategies on the human well-being of farmers and herdsmen within the national park construction area can help to better develop livelihood intervention measures to achieve sustainable livelihoods for farmers and herders. A total of 329 farmers and herders in Qilian Mountain National Park in China were investigated, and one-way ANOVA and ordinary least squares were employed to analyze the impact of farmers’ and herders’ livelihood strategies on human well-being in different periods of national park construction. Our results show that the livelihood strategies of farmers and herders play an important role in their well-being. Farmers and herders adopted diversified livelihood strategies after the National Park System Pilot officially launched (after 2015). The well-being advantage of adopting a diversified livelihood strategy became evident over time. Specifically, farmers and herders adopting the settlement diversification livelihood strategy were able to better adapt to the development concept of the national park after the national park pilot was officially established (after 2017). However, nomadic, settled agricultural, and pastoral households were always at a disadvantage in terms of well-being. In addition, distance, nationality, gender, and education level were important factors affecting the well-being of farmers and herders. The results of this study are helpful for improving our understanding of the influence of livelihood strategies on the well-being of farmers and herders and the related challenges they face in the construction of national parks.

Discussion on method of controlled zoning and functional zoning of national parks：Take Shennongjia National Park System Pilot Area as an example

Discussion on method of controlled zoning and functional zoning of national parks：Take Shennongjia National Park System Pilot Area as an example

Spatial patterns of rice paddy microbial communities and the associated drivers in Qianjiangyuan National Park system pilot

Spatial patterns of rice paddy microbial communities and the associated drivers in Qianjiangyuan National Park system pilot

Evaluation of Cultural Ecosystem Service Functions in National Parks from the Perspective of Benefits of Community Residents

The ecosystem of national parks bears some cultural features. How the cultural ecosystem service functions are perceived by the public and how the cultural ecosystem service functions shape the public’s cognition have become urgent scientific questions. This paper performs a case analysis on the Qianjiangyuan National Park System Pilot Area, a representative national park in China, which clarifies the main types of cultural ecosystem service functions from the perspective of the landscape aesthetics benefits of community residents, and analyze the varied impacts of demographics on functional cognition. On this basis, the entropy weight method was adopted to evaluate the importance of each function. Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation was employed to assess the composite level of the cultural service functions. The results show that: (1) the community residents value the benefits brought by the national park the most in terms of the ecological improvement function, and the situation is consistent across the four towns/townships; by contrast, the community residents attach the least importance to the benefits in terms of system governance function. (2) Except for the years of local residence, the community residents’ cognition of different cultural ecosystem service functions may vary significantly, owing to factors like gender, age, education level, occupation, and annual mean income. (3) Concerning the importance of functional indices, the importance scores of the natural experience functions, humanistic concern functions, and social service functions are 0.3286, 0.3503, and 0.3211, respectively. The community residents had a moderate to high level of cognition for the cultural ecosystem service functions (3.99). The different types of functions can be sorted by effectiveness as: the social service functions (4.11) > natural experience functions (4.03) > humanistic concern functions (3.86). The research results provide a reference for improving the management level of national parks, and ease the increasingly prominent contradiction between people and land.

Effects of Soundscapes on Human Physiology and Psychology in Qianjiangyuan National Park System Pilot Area in China

The development of China’s national parks is still in the initial stage, and few scholars have studied the effects of soundscapes on human physiology and psychology from the perspective of the auditory senses in national parks. In this study, the Qianjiangyuan National Park System Pilot Area was taken as the research subject, physiological indicators of subjects were collected through a biopAC-MP150 multi-channel physiological instrument data platform, and the subjective psychological response of soundscapes was measured using a Likert scale. The results showed that the sound of water had the most significant effect on the heart rate and respiratory rate of the subjects. Agricultural sound had the greatest impact on the skin conduction levels, while conversation had the least overall impact on human physiology. There were significant differences in comfort, excitement, and significance among the different soundscapes (p < 0.001). The sounds of insects are more likely to elicit feelings of comfort and excitement, while the sounds of birds are more likely to arouse curiosity. No significant correlation was observed between the physiological indices and psychological indices. The study on the effects of different soundscapes on human physiology and psychology in China’s national parks will provide a basis for the decision makers of national parks to formulate more effective planning, design, and management policies regarding soundscapes.

An Evaluation of National Park System Pilot Area Using the AHP-Delphi Approach: A Case Study of the Qianjiangyuan National Park System Pilot Area, China

With the national park as an important measure of ecological protection, China has started 10 national park system pilot areas. However, the research on the comprehensive evaluation of national park construction and development is insufficient. The main purpose of this study was to establish a comprehensive evaluation index system for the pilot area of the national park system. The method of the Analytic Hierarchy Process combined with the Delphi method by ten relevant experts was used. The comprehensive evaluation index system for the national park system pilot areas was composed of the objective level and the criteria level which includes three items: natural resource conditions; research, education and recreation functions; and protection and management conditions. The indicator level involved seven items and the factor level included 31 items. Furthermore, the weight of each item in these levels was obtained through the Delphi method by the judgement of selected experts. The Qianjiangyuan National Park System Pilot Area (QNPSPA) was selected as the study case for empirical research. The score of the comprehensive evaluation of the QNPSPA was 90.801, which belongs to Grade I in the five catalogues, indicating its comprehensive construction level was very high and its protection and management measures were efficient. However, significant deficiencies also existed in the area suitability, recreation facilities and production, natural resource property rights, human landscape value and ecosystem integrity. To address these problems, five suggestions were proposed. For example, strengthening cross-administrative cooperation and communication, improving the construction of recreational facilities, etc. The evaluation framework proposed in this study could play a positive role in the construction evaluation of the pilot areas of national parks in China and is conducive to promoting the evaluation research of national parks in China and promoting the development of conservation and construction.

The Intention of Community Participation in the Qilian Mountain National Park Policy Pilot

As a management strategy, community participation is to implement the coordinated development of communities and protected areas. In recent years, the development of China’s national parks has faced many challenges related to human and environmental constraints. Community participation plays an essential role in solving such issues. As one of the critical indicators to test community participation, community residents’ willingness to participate significantly impacts community participation in constructing national parks. As such, this study was conducted using the extended model of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the structural equation model. Taking the Tianzhu county and Sunan Yugu county as examples, and based on 230 valid questionnaires, we investigated the impacts of the Qilian Mountain National Park System Pilot Area on community residents’ willingness to participate and provided relevant suggestions for amendments. The results indicated that, for the Qilian Mountain National Park System Pilot Area, behavioral attitude, subjective norms, and perceptual behavior control positively impacted the participation intention of community residents. At the same time, the variables mentioned above positively impacted the implementation of the participation intention of community residents. Specifically, the order of impacts is as follows: perceptual behavior control (path coefficient = 0.89) > participation behavior attitude (path coefficient = 0.68) > related impact system (path coefficient = 0.41) > subjective norms (path coefficient = 0.38). According to the results, we put forward three suggestions: (1) providing relevant instructions and guidance on various methods to ensure that the pilot policies on the construction of national parks can form a positive relationship with the participation intentions of the community residents; (2) making full use of the function of perceptual behavior control, so the subjective initiative of community residents can be maximized, thereby enhancing the willingness of community residents to participate in constructing national parks; and (3) strengthening the impacts of subjective norms, enhancing the soft culture of national park communities’ participation, reshaping the community cultural landscapes with the goal of constructing national parks, and establishing community residents’ sense of honor as the builders of national parks.

Spatial-temporal differentiation of mountain-water-forest-farmland-lake-grass system in Qinghai area of the Qilian Mountain National Park, China

Higher and more precise requirements are critically needed for the protection, regulation, and restoration of ecological environment in the Qilian Mountain National Park after it is classified as a national park system pilot in China. Based on remote sensing data in 1980-2018, the spatial pattern map of mountain-water-forest-farmland-lake-grass system was constructed to analyze its spatial-temporal variations in the general control area and core conservation area in Qinghai area of the Qilian Mountain National Park. The results showed that grasslands, with an area of 8174.93 km2, were the main landscape in the park, and that grassland area in the core conservation area was 1.2 times as that of the general control area. The bare exposed rocks, a major type of unused land, accounted for 86.7% and 79.4% of the unused land in the core conservation area and the general control area, respectively. Forest area in the general control area was larger than that in the core conservation area. Water area in the core conservation area was 4.9 times as large as that in the general control area, with 90.4% of which being dominated by permanent glaciers and snowfields. The drylands were mainly concentrated in the general control area. From 1980 to 2018, the water area was decreasing and had been reduced by 186.75 km2. The area of permanent glaciers and snowfields decreased the most, with a drop of 12.05 and 175.88 km2 in the general control area and the core conservation area, respectively. The area of forests and grasslands were enlarged constantly. The changes of high-, medium-, and low-coverage grasslands in the core conservation area were greater than that in the general control area, which were the most significant during 1990-2000. Moreover, the degradation of high- and medium-coverage grasslands in the general control area as well as high- and low-coverage grasslands in the core conservation area was observed from 1980 to 2018. The area of bare exposed rocks was on the rise, while the permanent glaciers and snowfields displayed a decreasing trend. The permanent glaciers and snowfields and the bare exposed rocks exhibited the most obvious changes in the park. The glaciers in the core conservation area retreated remarkably faster than those in the general control area, which were transformed into the bare exposed rocks mainly in 1980-1990 and 2000-2010.

Insights into Public Visual Behaviors through Eye-Tracking Tests: A Study Based on National Park System Pilot Area Landscapes

National parks are important natural reserves of high ecological value, and the visual perception of national park landscapes is closely tied to the degree of protection that the natural resources within national parks receive. Visual cognition has a direct impact on public consciousness and plays an increasingly important role in national park management. Most techniques and methods previously used to study visual behaviors are subjective and qualitative; objective and quantitative studies are rare. Here, we used the eye-tracking method to study the visual behaviors of individuals viewing landscapes within the Qianjiangyuan National Park System Pilot Area to assess the visual and psychological mechanisms underlying public perception of different landscapes. The effect of landscape type on visual behaviors was greater than that of color diversity and degree of spatial confinement and was mainly related to the characteristics of landscape elements. The public preferred recreational and forest landscapes with high ornamental value, whereas rural and wetland landscapes tended to be neglected given that perception of these landscapes required additional information to facilitate interpretation. When landscape colors were uniform and landscape spaces were more confined, the fixation duration was longer, and instant attractiveness was stronger. The effects of subject background on behavioral preferences were examined. Females were more interested in the whole landscape, whereas males focused more on the parts of the landscapes with prominent humanistic architectural features, complex colors, and open space. Art students generally preferred landscapes with strong humanistic attributes, whereas students majoring in forestry preferred landscapes with strong natural attributes.

Subsidy, training or material supply? The impact path of eco-compensation method on farmers' livelihood assets

The impact of ecological compensation policies on farmers' livelihoods is related to the sustainability of policies and social equity. How do different compensation methods affect farmers' livelihood assets? This paper uses China's Three-River-Source National Park System Pilot Area (TNP) as the research area, and designs three compensation scenarios: cash subsidy, material supply, and technical training. We evaluated the impact of different compensation methods on the livelihood assets of farmers, and reveals the impact path of ecological compensation on different livelihood assets. The results show that cash subsidies can effectively improve the livelihood assets of farmers (17.04%), the five types of livelihood capital distribution are most reasonable under technical training method (0.306); Three compensation methods have improved the human assets of rural households (40.48%, 18.57%, and 0.48% respectively) and physical assets (30.15%, 26.84%, and 9.56% respectively). It also show different effects on farmers' financial assets (44.00%, −11.43%, and 1.14%) and social assets (19.15%, −17.02%, and 10.64%, respectively). Ecological compensation reduced farmers' natural assets (32.89%), but all three compensation methods stimulated farmers to improve their education levels (59.06%, 0.79%, and 7.87%, respectively), which affected farmers' human assets; The improvement of means of production (41.54%, 50.00% and 7.69% respectively) and the family living conditions (75.00%, 25.00% and 75.00% respectively) affect the physical assets of farmers; Changes in natural assets, human assets, and physical assets affect the financial assets of farmers, while social assets is affected by financial assets and human assets.

基于多源数据空间分析的国家公园管控分区研究——以钱江源国家公园体制试点区为例

《关于建立以国家公园为主体的自然保护地体系的指导意见》提出国家公园实行管控分区的要求，以便实现国家公园最严格保护目标。然而，国家公园管控分区评价的指标尚不明确，以浙江钱江源国家公园体制试点区（以下简称"钱江源国家公园"）为研究对象，采用层次分析法从基础环境（包括高程、植被指数、交通道路影响和基本农田）、重点野生动植物分布（野生动植物、黑麂生境适宜性和白颈长尾雉生境适宜性）、自然资源保护基础（古田山国家级自然保护区、钱江源国家森林公园、钱江源风景名胜区和生态公益林）和生态现状（生态功能适宜性评价、自然资源承载力、三区三线和土地利用现状）等指标构建多源数据空间分析指标体系，利用空间叠加分析技术获取钱江源国家公园的管控分区结果，并与管控分区最终结果进行对比分析。结果表明：（1）基于多源数据的方法能有效地识别钱江源国家公园内生态保护价值较高区域；（2）多源数据空间分析结果与最终管控分区结果对比显示，其总体精度为78.07%（197.70 km²），在核心保护区精度为83.55%（127.99 km²），一般控制区精度为69.67%（69.71 km²）；（3）影响精度主要原因是新调入区域基础数据不足，以及通过定性分析解决管控分区破碎化等。研究认为基于多源空间数据分析技术能够客观、高效地划分国家公园管控分区，具有一定普适性，但仍需通过增加数据数量或优化算法提高精度。;According to Guidelines on the Establishing a System of Nature Reserves Dominated by National Parks, zoning control is required to implement in national parks to achieve the objective of most strict protection. However, what factors could be used in zoning is debated. For finding out a set of index system for zoning, we study the Qianjiangyuan National Park System Pilot Area (hereinafter referred to as Qianjiangyuan National Park) as an example. We collected the multi-source data including the general environmental information (such as Digital Elevation Model, DEM; Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, NDVI; impacts of traffic and permanent basic farmlands), major distribution of wildlife (such as wild animal and botany vegetation;Habitat suitability of Muntiacus crinifrons and Syrmaticus ellioti), natural resources protection (such as Gutianshan National Natural Reserve; Qianjiangyuan National Forest Park; Qianjiangyuan Scenic Spot and Ecological public forests) and ecological status indicators (such as evaluation of ecological function suitability; evaluation of natural resources carrying capacity; red lines of three spatial zones and land use planning), and used analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to build a set of index system for zoning. Based on the results of AHP, we adopt the spatial overlay analysis technique to obtain the spatial distribution including the core protected zone and general controlled zone in Qianjiangyuan National Park, and then compared our results with the current functional zones. The results showed that:(1) the analysis based on the multi-source data can effectively recognize high ecological protection value in Qianjiangyuan National Park; (2) compared to the actual functional zones, the overlap areas of these two results is 197.70 km², which indicated that the total accuracy of spatial analysis was 78.07%, and the overlap areas in core protected area and general controlled area were 127.99 km² and 69.71 km², which meaning that the accuracy in core protected area or general controlled area were 83.55% or 69.67%, respectively; (3) the reasons that affect the accuracy between spatial overlay analysis and the actual functional zones are including that insufficient basic data in the new areas, and errors introduced by qualitative analysis for solving the fragmentation of the zoning. Overall, this study confirmed that the multi-source spatial data analysis technology could efficiently and accurately work on zoning core protected area or general controlled area of national parks, and could be replicated into other nature protected areas, but it still needs more basic data or optimize algorithm to improve zoning accuracy.

Distinguishing‍ feature‍ and‍ suggestions‍ of‍ Shennongjia‍ National‍ Park‍ system pilot

Distinguishing‍ feature‍ and‍ suggestions‍ of‍ Shennongjia‍ National‍ Park‍ system pilot

On the experiences of Qilian Mountain National Park system pilot

On the experiences of Qilian Mountain National Park system pilot

Exploring evaluation methods for integrity and authenticity of terrestrial natural ecosystems in national parks: The case of Qianjiangyuan National Park system pilot

Exploring evaluation methods for integrity and authenticity of terrestrial natural ecosystems in national parks: The case of Qianjiangyuan National Park system pilot

Experience in the Pudacuo National Park system pilot in Shangri-La, Yunnan

Experience in the Pudacuo National Park system pilot in Shangri-La, Yunnan

The practice of Nanshan National Park system pilot

The practice of Nanshan National Park system pilot

The exploration of China's National Park System Pilot Project: Taking Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park System Pilot Area as an example

In December 2016, Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park started the pilot work. It is the only pilot area that is directly managed by the central government. Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park System Pilot Area undertakes two major reform tasks. One is to explore the path to establish the national park system in China. Other is to improve the national natural resource asset management system. This paper comprehensively summarizes the progress and experiences of the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park System Area. It has concluded that the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park System Area has gained achievements in many aspect and the experiences has a possibility to be copied.

Discussion on the construction of Giant Panda National Park System Pilot Area

The project of Giant Panda National Park System Pilot Area was launched in January 2017.On one hand, the main task of the project is to integrate the main habitats of giant pandas and protect the most important places which are supposed to be conserved. On the other hand, the project aims to solve the institutional problems of cross-regions and cross-department. It has been expected that the Giant Panda National Park would be officially established based on the construction of Giant Panda National Park System Pilot Area. This paper has overviewed the progress of the construction of Giant Panda National Park System Pilot Area. It concluded that construction of Giant Panda National Park System Pilot Area have had sound achievements in management system, ecological conservation, natural resource management, community participation and education.

The exploration of China's National Park System Pilot Project: Taking Qilian Mountain National Park as an example

Qilian Mountain National Park became the pilot area of China National Park System Pilot Project in June 2017. This article provides a basic description of Qilian Mountain National Park System Pilot Area from the aspects of the important natural resources, key ecological functions, and important historical and cultural values. It explores, analyzes the construction path and effect of Qilian Mountain National Park System Pilot Area in management and operation, policy, ecological conversation and restoration, natural resources supervision and community. It has been concluded that the construction of Qilian Mountain National Park System Pilot Area has sound effect of ecological restoration, economic and social development and park governance capacity.