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Nature and the City

China’s National Parks in Progress

Producer/Gehry[UCRC]+Ting WANG[HKU]

Text/Guanzhi DONG + Xiaoming KUANG + Min ZHAO + Ting WANG[HKU]

Translation/Ting WANG [HKU]


In 2013, the concept of “national park” with the main connotation of protecting natural resources entered the highest-level policy document in China for the first time. "National park" as a western concept is popular in China because it is entrusted with the overall hope of coordinating the national resources managed by different departments. However, there is still a lot of basic work to be done before the national park system can be adapted in China. The following sections mainly focus on clarifying the concept and cognition of national parks, standardizing the ‘multiple’ management system, clarifying the relationship with various laws such as for urban and rural planning, and optimizing residents ’consumption habits and attitudes towards nature. Departing from the narrow perspective of tourism development and nature protection, this article argues for the “broad perspective” to realise that national park is closely related to our daily urban life and human settlements.


NATIONAL PARK, AND ‘NATIONAL PARK OF CHINA’


The global diffusion of national parks began after World War II. In 1872, the world's first national park, the most prestigious Yellowstone National Park, was born in the United States. In 1916, in order to better balance the relationship between protection and utilization (development), the United States established a national park system. Later on, this concept has been gradually accepted globally. Although there are distinct local characteristics among different countries and regions, almost every country has established its own national park system and nature reserves.


USA national parks(Source/teardropadventures.com)

Yellowstone National Park by Wellge,1904.(Source/Wikipedia)


At present, the concepts and standards of national parks in the world mainly come from IUCN's Protected Area System. The Guidelines for Protected Area Management Categories published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1994 divides protected areas into 6 categories according to the main management objectives: strict nature reserves and wilderness reserves, national parks, natural monuments, habitats/species management area, protected landscape/seascape, protected area with sustainable use of natural resources. It can be seen that the protection intensity of national parks (Class II) is second only to strict nature reserves and wilderness reserves (Class Ia and Ib). According to the definition of the IUCN revised “Guide” in 2013, “national park” refers to large natural or near natural areas set aside to protect large-scale ecological processes, along with the complement of species and ecosystems characteristic of the area, which also provide a foundation for environmentally and culturally compatible, spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational, and visitor opportunities. The core meaning of national parks lies in the concept of "public", that is, national parks are public spaces.


The last Saturday of September each year is the "National Public Lands Day" in the United States. On this day, the national park is open to the public free of charge. People will spontaneously come to national parks, reserves, forests and other public land areas as volunteers to do some work for free, such as building bridges and roads, building dams, maintaining lakes and wetlands, improving wildlife habitats, and restoring cultural entertainment Facilities, etc. (Source / nps.gov)


The development of the national park system in China is relatively late. In October 8, 2008, the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China and the National Tourism Administration have approved the construction of China's first national park pilot unit – Heilongjiang Tangwanghe National Park. In 2013, the Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth CPC Central Committee reviewed and passed the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues of Comprehensively Deepening Reform. The "National Park System" is one of the measures to reform the ecological civilization system. For the first time, the concept of "national park" entered China's highest-level policy documents.


Sanjiangyuan National Park official website. The website (sjy.qinghai.gov.cn) is linked to the Qinghai Provincial Government.


In 2017, China ’s first institutional pilot, the Sanjiangyuan National Park, was established in Qinghai, and the General Plan for Establishing a National Park System was promulgated. In 2018, the Central Committee of the CPC issued the  Reform Plan of Deepening Party and State Institutions, which clearly established the National Forestry and Grassland Bureau and added the National Park Authority brand under it. In 2019, the General Office of the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on the Establishment of Nature Reserve System based on National Park, which clearly pointed out that China's national parks, as a future development goal of national ecological governance strategies, will be a deepen reform of the system with a new operating mechanism and model, and proposed that the national park’s institutional pilots will be completed by 2020; the integration and optimization of nature reserves will be completed by 2025, and a nature reserve system with national parks as the main body will be Preliminary built. By 2035, China will fully establish the system of nature reserves with Chinese characteristics. Nature reserves account for more than 18% of the land area in China. From this point of view, 2020 will be an important year for China's national parks when the pilot of the national park institutional pilots will end and the first batch of national parks will be officially established.


On April 10, 2018, the National Forestry and Grassland Bureau and the National Park Service were unveiled (Source / forestry.gov.cn)


Although the term "national park" is imported from the western contexts in recently years, China had similar approaches to national parks back in the early days. The closest concept of western national parks in the early days was China's ‘National Park of China’. Since 1982, the State Council has announced 8 batches of 225 National Park of China which also called National Scenic Spots. In 1986, the State Council promulgated the Regulations on the Management of National Scenic Areas. In 1994, the Green Paper on Situation and Prospects of Scenic Spots in China issued by the former Ministry of Construction of the People ’s Republic of China clearly stated that “China ’s scenic spots correspond to international national parks and have their own Features.” According to the definition in Chapter 50 of the Specifications for Scenic Spot Planning • Terminology (National Standard GB50298-1999 of the People ’s Republic of China), national scenic spots are equivalent to “overseas national parks” in the classification of protected area systems. As for the scenic and leisure tourism resources, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the State Council should make overall management. The establishment of national scenic spots and the realization of public values are actually the concept of the early Chinese national parks.


BUREAUCRATIC GAME IN THE NAME OF THE NATION


In the practice of natural resource management in China, the concept of "state" is often generalized. There is often issues from "Tragedy of the commons" in Western discourse where individual users spoiling the shared resource as a collective action and ignoring the responsibilities if there are no interests. China ’s Constitution stipulates that land is owned by the state and property rights belong to the state. The state needs to form a unified management of state-owned land resources through technology and systems to balance the relationship between protection and utilization.


However, in order to grab social resources and the interests of the departments, various departments took advantage of imperfect laws to incorporate various types of natural protection areas into their own powers in reality. Different protection systems and regulations have been formulated and formed on a shared land. This phenomenon has been called as ‘water governance by nine dragons’ in China. For example, scenic spots and national urban wetland parks are managed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development; national forest parks and national wetland parks are managed by the National Forestry Administration; cultural relics protection units are managed by the National Cultural Heritage Administration; national geoparks are managed by the Ministry of Land and Resources; A-level tourist attractions are managed by the National Tourism Administration. Many famous mountains in China are both national scenic spots, national geoparks, national forest parks, and national 5A scenic spots.


Signs of various national parks / scenic areas / protected areas in China


This decentralized system is equivalent to the state-owned land stipulated by the Constitution being formed into an absolute monopoly by local governments and various functional departments in the name of the country. The segmented pattern of land management in China is increasingly solidified which lead to resources waste and degradation. This has turned most nature reserves into a selling point and gold signboard for tourism development in various functional departments or localities. Some government officials think that building a plank road is to "protect" the environment. These misunderstanding resulting in the early protection regulations of natural resources turned into monopolistic destruction of nature reserves.


For example, the aforementioned national scenic spots approved by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development are not national parks in the true sense. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development does not represent the country. However, everyone seems is accustomed to this abnormal phenomenon of multiple brands and competing managements in China. Therefore, although the first batch of national parks will be officially established by the National Forestry and Grassland Bureau with the National Park Administration brand this year (2020). There is no national park yet that is in line with the spirit of the legal sense in Constitution form the perspectives of administrative management, human, material and financial resources.


Boardwalk in Pudacuo National Park, Yunnan (Photo/Cui Guo)


At present, the "National Park" that everyone is talking about should be called "State built Park" in China, that is, park established under the national initiative, such as Stated University, State Hospital, state Library and so on as in the past. State built parks can integrate various parks approved by various ministries and commissions, and also clarify the meaning of "state". The role of national parks is to limit human living and production activities within the scope of nature reserves, limit carbon emissions, protect the environment, and keep ecological features in a relatively balanced and stable state.


SUPPRESSING THE COLLECTIVE IMPULSE TO ‘POSSESS NATURAL RESOURCES’ BY LAW


We should also adopt a dialectical attitude towards the upcoming National Park Law. The priority of so-called national parks should be environmental protection rather than rational uses. If national parks are used as engines of local economic development and to promote urbanization in the name of tourism development, it is deviate from the original intention of national parks. Conversely, if the land is only restricted for limiting industrialization and urbanization, then the new concept of national parks is meaningless because the existing "Urban and Rural Planning Law", "Environmental Protection Law", "Forest Law", "Water Resources Law" and "Land Management Law" all have clear regulations on the ecological environment. If these laws cannot restrict existing occupations of nature, another "National Park Law" will certainly not help but generate confuse. Therefore, the future national park management should pay attention to the construction of environmental views of various departments, paying special attention to this collective unconscious destruction of the living environment and the collective impulse to occupy natural resources.


The National Parks section of the National Forestry and Grassland Bureau website lacks information display and links.


According to our current mentality and behaviours, if a “national park” is established, it is likely that the national parks will eventually become carriers for people ’s interests. The most direct representations are the economic development park of various names and tourist districts. The problems of insufficient management, insufficient funds, unsuccessful development, and inadequate protections may continue to exist. From this level, the implementation of national parks concept should be deferred. In order to set things right, it is necessary to clean up the source in accordance with the Constitution and systematically sort out and substantially adjust existing laws and regulations of various departments. This is the starting point and logical condition for the establishment of a national park system. Therefore, whether national parks can become a real concept, specialized terminology in China, and play the positive role that people have expected, the prerequisite is to clarify the top-level design of relevant laws and policies of various Chinese ministries.


NATIONAL PARKS ARE NOT UNRELATED TO URBANIZATION


In China, the tourism industry is the major party that support the development of national parks. China's "geographical crisis" in the 1990s promoted the transformation of natural and human geography to tourism management, but the original seriousness of geography as a discipline was not inherited. Since the beginning of the 21st century, China's tourism geography has been gradually vulgarized by the public. The China's tourism industry now has crossed the line. Some experts or departments have been kidnapped by opportunism, trying to use the banner of "reviving traditional culture" to stand on the moral high ground and intervene in the macro economy. This has led to a 'tourism boom' in Chinese society in the 21st century. The first thing the public get to know about national parks is "Can we play? Is it Fun? How?"


Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area packed with tourists (Phoro from the Internet)


Therefore, when we discuss the new national park system, we should not be limited to the two narrow angles of nature protection and tourism, where only professionals get the power to discuss a narrow problem of ‘’Do we need to protect nature". Instead, more people should realize the broad meaning of national parks and the relationship between national parks and the cities in which they live. In terms of ecological protection, sustainable development and leisure, national parks are relevant to everyone's vital interests. The reason why various early planning and management methods overlap in the same area is largely because of the previous general urban and rural planning methods. Although there are strict land use divisions in China, they are ultimately based on urban and rural space with the lack of attention to nature and management sensitivity.


Obviously, at the period of establishment of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the implementation of a multi-institutional land and space planning, national parks are not only problems in the landscape and tourism academic. Instead, it is a multi-disciplinary issue of urban planning, economics, sociology. It is not only a problem for the leisure industry, but also for the development of villages and towns, ecological planning, infrastructure construction, and agricultural transformation.




Author

Urban China is cooperated and participated by the Ministry of Construction, Tongji University, Qinghua University, Beijing University, Zhongshan University, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Chongqing University, etc. We illustrate urban development from political, economic, social and humane perspectives. Our team is mastered by experts from architecture design and urban planning, and our contents are edited by experienced senior editors with sensitivity to urban development. Our headquarter locates in Shanghai and we use synchronous and co-ordinated editing methods in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and Chongqing.


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