Recent protected‐area designation in China: an evaluation of administrative and statutory procedures

Abstract

Past protected-area (PA) designation in China followed a centralized administrative approach with minimum participation of lower-echelon governments. A period of deregulation and decentralization in 1979-91 without the benefit of relevant legislation resulted in few designations and poor management. Responding to national and international encouragement to augment the conservation of natural resources, the central government enacted statutory procedures in 1991 to encourage and regulate PA establishments at different administrative levels of government. The study evaluates the effectiveness of the new procedures in fulfilling conservation objectives. The new legislative and administrative regime reinforces deregulation and decentralization by devolving designation power and shifting financial and management responsibilities to lower levels of government, and involving more scientists and objective site assessment in PA design and assessment. Problems have arisen in the designation process due to the omission of key biota and ecosystems, bypassing the scientific assessment stage, too much emphasis on nonconservation gains, ignoring the needs of local communities, escalating people-park conflicts, intensifying paper-park syndrome, and the conflicting role of experts. The recently designated Shimentai Provincial Rank Nature Reserve in a mountain area in south China served as a case study to illustrate the procedures and problems.

Changing Perceptions of Forest Value and Attitudes toward Management of a Recently Established Nature Reserve: A Case Study in Southwest China

“…The Dinghu Shan Nature Reserve, China's first, was established in Guangdong Province in 1956 [23]. Even though China started to pay attention to its nature reserve system after the establishment of the new China in 1949, the Great Leap Forward (1958)(1959)(1960) and the chaos of the Cultural Revolution (1966)(1967)(1968)(1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974)(1975)(1976)) disrupted the implementation of conservation efforts; this period witnessed extensive environmental degradation resulting from rapid resource exploitation [16,22].…”

“…In an effort to protect biodiversity, protected areas were created by excluding local people from reserves, through the imposition of regulations that restrict resource exploitation requiring a strict approach using "fences and fines" [22,23]. Since the first nature reserve was established in 1956, by 2012 China had created 2669 nature reserves, which cover an area of 149,790,000 ha, accounting for 14.9% of China's territory and exceeding the world average of 12% [29].…”

Exploring sustainable tourism development in mountainous Guizhou Province, China

“…Local governments are often overpreoccupied with economic gains than their concern for genuine nature conservation. Often, management of world heritage sites and aesthetic sites is leased out by local authorities to profit-led tourist corporations (Zhang et al, 2004;Jim and Xu, 2004). "Over-development" which could lead to permanent landscape damages in mountain areas must be consistently monitored and authentic sustainable tourism will have to put into practice.…”

“…Then, many protected areas appeared only on paper and conservation measures were rarely met. Impressive improvements have since been made largely due to the implementation of the deregulation and devolution strategy which allowed local governments to play a more proactive and assume greater responsibility (Jim and Xu, 2004). After the severe droughts in 1997 and massive Yangtze River floods in 1998, tough ecological protection measures and generous conservation and reforestation funding were initiated.…”

Urban ecological conservation policy in Shenzhen: the production of a ‘Biophysical Fix’

“…In 1991, the Chinese central government enacted statutory procedures to encourage the establishment of conservation areas at the county, provincial and national levels (Jim & Xu, 2004), implying an attempt by the state to re-regularise and strengthen government functions and thus to improve the efficiency of the management of protected areas. The national conservation planning framework identifies the pivotal role of government at different scales and the need to cooperate across scales for conservation, with an eye toward the maintenance of biodiversity and the restoration of certain rare, threatened, or typical natural habitats and species to favourable conservation status (China State Council Committee for Protection, 1997).…”