Biodiversity Conservation and Protected Areas in China: Science, Law, and the Obdurate Party-State

Abstract

The recent increase in scholarly and other professional interest in environmental policy in China is quite remarkable. 1 It is almost as remarkable as the persistent inability of that literature, despite the generally high quality, impressive disciplinary range, and diverse national origins of the contributions, to settle on any clear or widely shared understanding of how environmental policy in China works, or why it works the way it does. The growth of the literature is a direct reflection of two major factors. One is the extent and severity of the environmental problems the leadership of the Chinese party-state 2 has gradually come to acknowledge since the 1970s as the direct and increasingly unattractive and unacceptable consequence of the policies China has chosen to follow. The transformation of the

China's endemic vertebrates sheltering under the protective umbrella of the giant panda

“…It holds many types of ecosystem and harbors 15% of the world's vertebrate species and 12% of all plant species (Kram et al 2012). Although China is confronting serious environmental problems during its rapid social and economic development (Wu et al 2014), it has emphasized conservation of biodiversity in recent years (Wang et al 2007;Wandesforde-Smith et al 2014;Xie et al 2014). Importantly, the total protected area has expanded 35-fold since 1980 Liu & Diamond 2005;Xu & Melick 2007;MEP 2013;Xie et al 2014).…”

A Chinese approach to protected areas: A case study comparison with the United States

“…The national government still maintains park infrastructure to some extent, but routine administration is now the responsibility of relevant regional and local governments (1994; Zheng and Cao, 2014;Zinda, 2014). Regional and local government officials have strong incentives to promote local and regional economies, and ecotourism and natural resource extraction can appear to be attractive options, even if they come at the cost of conservation and traditional ways of life (Urgenson et al, 2014;Wandesforde-Smith et al, 2014;Xu and Melick, 2007;Xu et al, 2012;Zinda, 2012Zinda, , 2014. In Wudalianchi National Nature Reserve, these problems are small relative to other Chinese protected areas, but science and education appear vastly underfunded compared to the investments in park functions more directly related to visitor accommodation and economic development.…”

“…The government has also called for enhancing conservation in the framework of national policies (CCCP, 2013;Cyranoski, 2016;Sang and Axmacher, 2016), and has invested heavily in improving and expanding protected areas (Li et al, 2016;Wang et al, 2012;Wu et al, 2011). Although these investments have been met with significant challenges and some skepticism (Huang, 2016;Wandesforde-Smith et al, 2014;Zheng and Cao, 2014;Zhong et al, 2015), they also represent important strides toward reducing the negative impacts of China's economic growth on the environment (Fu, 2008;Ren et al, 2015).…”

“…The story of conservation in China, when reported in the media and scientific literature, often focuses on challenges and failures (Wandesforde-Smith et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2012;Zheng and Cao, 2014). However, the Chinese government has recently begun taking steps to improve the environment, such as increasing its investments in renewable energy and other methods of making more efficient use of resources .…”

Dual-function forests in the returning farmland to forest program and the flexibility of environmental policy in China

“…In addition, economic growth is still the most important criterion by which local officials' performance is evaluated, so there may have been upward pressure from local officials to be allowed to modify the policy to achieve growth goals (Eaton and Kostka, 2014;Smith, 2013). At the central level too, while central state authorities have clearly increased their stress on environmental protection and rehabilitation, aims of expanding production constrain environmental policy (Robbins and Harrell, 2014;Wandesforde-Smith, Denninger Snyder, and Hart, 2014).…”