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Prospects and challenges coexist in China’s new protected area system

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Abstract

Acting as a cornerstone in conserving biodiversity, protected areas (PAs) have played important roles in protecting the unique flora and fauna in China, yet a variety of issues have arisen, such as fragmented management, dispersed spatial pattern, and conflicts with socioeconomic development. To grapple with the problems associated with the current PA system, China is implementing nationwide institutional reforms by proposing a new coherent PA system with national parks as the main body. The reforms provide unprecedented opportunities to integrate the existing disjointed PAs into a unified and efficient system, and to meet international commitments. However, no previous experience is available for how to construct China’s new national park system. We decipher how the institutional reforms would change China’s PA system, and what the reforms can provide for China’s PAs and biodiversity, as well as potential challenges. Importantly, China’s PAs are stepping into a new era for nature conservation, with a strong hope to provide a quality environmental space for the rich and unique biodiversity.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Townsend Peterson for his helpful comments on the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31970500, 31770571, 31770568, 32071544, 31772432); the Excellent Youth Project of the Anhui Natural Science Foundation (2108085Y09) and the ‘Light of West China’ Programme of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, Anhui, China

    Chunlin Li & Tingting Yao

  2. Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecosystem Protection and Restoration, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, Anhui, China

    Chunlin Li

  3. Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China

    Xiaoyi Wang & Junhua Hu

  4. School of Life Sciences, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, Anhui, China

    Baowei Zhang

  5. Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Huijie Qiao

Authors
  1. Chunlin Li
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  2. Tingting Yao
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  3. Xiaoyi Wang
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  4. Baowei Zhang
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  5. Huijie Qiao
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  6. Junhua Hu
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Correspondence to Huijie Qiao or Junhua Hu.

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Communicated by Dirk Sven Schmeller.

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This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Biodiversity protection and reserves.

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Li, C., Yao, T., Wang, X. et al. Prospects and challenges coexist in China’s new protected area system. Biodivers Conserv 31, 315–319 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02319-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02319-z

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