The establishment of the nature protected area system based on national parks is seen as the important implementation of Xi Jinping's Thought on ecological civilization from the perspective of reform. From the perspective of homeland space governance, it is the core carrier of ecological construction and the primary position of maintaining its primary position in national ecological security. In order to achieve harmonious coexistence between man and nature in the nature protected area, it is necessary to achieve "the strictest protection" and "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", which is both ecological and civilized. In order to better understand and interpret the development of China's protected areas and the driving factors behind them in the context of ecological civilization construction, we invited seven well-known experts from ecological civilization and national park related fields to discuss the following aspects of the protected areas: ecological civilization construction, human-land relations, conflict and symbiotic transformation mechanism between man and nature, the governance system of the protected areas and the contribution of Chinese governance system to the construction of global ecological civilization, natural resource asset property rights system, daily management and supervision of the protected areas, ecological compensation and concession of the protected areas, and etc.
The main conclusions are: (1) Only through establishing the ecological civilization system can local governments deal with the relationship between the protection and development of the protected areas, and the establishment of the national park system has made the fastest overall progress and is the most systematic part in the reform of the ecological civilization system. (2) To achieve the "strictest protection", the development of the protected areas is inseparable from the support of the concept of the human-land relations. It stresses on the importance of paying attention to the "land" of the nature protected area, as well as emphasize the significance of the functions and participation of people from the perspectives of "adapting measures to local conditions" and "authenticity of land lovers". (3) The institutional causes of human-nature conflict in the nature protected area mainly stem from the conflict of interests and structures between governments at different levels. (4) To resolve conflicts and achieve symbiosis between man and nature, it is necessary to optimize the governance system, especially adjust the responsibility and rights system of governments at all levels. Moreover, in order to achieve the goals of "ecological protection first" and "public welfare for all people", we should reconstruct the dimension of interests, and form a community of common interests. (5) It is necessary to coordinate and efficiently allocate the responsibilities and rights of different stakeholders under the unified management goals, and construct a co-governance pattern and pluralistic co-governance system of the nature protected area so as to handle various relationships of multiple subjects in the governance system of the nature protected area. (6) There are deep-seated contradictions between the logic of capital and ecology, between the protected areas and human settlements systems, between nature conservation goals and global execution. The institutional advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era and the cultural tradition of "man and heaven" formed by thousands of years of accumulation can contribute Chinese wisdom to the construction of global ecological civilization. (7) In view of the construction needs of the protected areas system and its positioning in the spatial planning, it is necessary to optimize the property rights system of natural resource assets, and explore the control system of the territorial space that is conducive to handling the relationship between protection and development. Before the reform of the national institutions, there was a problem of fragmented management ("Nine-Dragon Water Governing" in Chinese) in the protected areas. The daily comprehensive management and supervision and law enforcement of the protected areas have been carried out to realize the unification, standardization and orderliness of management and supervision after the institutional reform. (8) In order to achieve ecological protection goals, it is necessary to universally realize the transformation of "two mountain theory", especially under the market economy. The national concession system can be seen as a market-oriented and diversified ecological compensation path and an effective way of green development, which requires the exploration of governmental franchise and brand franchising in active and diverse means.
This research proposed a concept of conservation-compatible livelihoods (CCLs) and a systematic implementation approach based on the conservation-compatible idea and the "people-oriented" conservation policies and practices. A large number of case studies, plans, and management policies of protected areas with the key element of "conservation-compatible" were screened, and analysed in an inductive way to review the sustainable livelihoods in protected areas. This process led to the proposal of CCLs. The CCLs return to the reciprocity of humans and nature and are centered on the shift of the global conservation discourse from "fortress conservation" to "community conservation". We defined CCLs as the way of making a living from natural resource use and management, and production and operation based on or dominated by certain rural land use in the social-ecological system composed of the protected areas and their boundary communities. We identified four groups of CCL activities and summarised their major features concerning the ecological, economic, cultural and social aspects. Aiming at synergising local resource use and global biodiversity conservation, we suggested a triple-judgement approach for the conservation agency and local government to help communities to achieve CCLs, namely, the identification of the livelihood demands, whether they are compatible with conservation targets, and whether their economic returns are acceptable. We further constructed a master model of the mechanism of the conservation-compatible livelihood approach and illustrated how to reach a fair and sustainable rural livelihood through sustainable resource use and value-adding processes based on local resource endowment and multi-stakeholder participation. This mechanism also confirmed the application of the CCL approach beyond the scope of protected areas to a larger conservation network. We argued that the CCL approach is feasible concerning the on-going institutional changes in China, and promoting conservation-compatible livelihoods in conservation practices is very supportive to coordinate rural development and protected area management, and to secure the development needs of developing countries when they are taking great responsibility in global biodiversity conservation causes. Finally, we pointed out that it is necessary to apply the CCL approach in other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) at the landscape scale to enrich the way to achieve CCL and expand the appropriate spatial areas. Tracking the progress of CCLs and evaluating their outcomes are also important.
The recent introduction of the principle of "authenticity of natural ecosystems" in the construction of national parks and the post-disaster restoration of Jiuzhaigou have triggered a debate on the issue of authenticity of natural ecosystems in the academic community. This paper systematically reviews the connotation of natural authenticity and its evolution in the international arena, and makes corresponding suggestions based on the practice of the concept of authenticity in Chinese natural protected areas. It is concluded that the issue of natural authenticity originated from the debate on whether ecological restoration was reasonable, and gradually evolved into the issue of whether to follow natural authenticity or historical authenticity in ecological restoration. Under the impetus of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the concept of ecological integrity has gradually replaced the concept of natural authenticity in ecological conservation and restoration, following the principle of combining humanism and scientism. In China's practice, however, the principle of authenticity in national parks still emphasizes historical authenticity. This study will help to better understand the principle of "authenticity" in the construction of national park systems and the ecological restoration of natural heritage in the context of increasingly frequent natural disasters and guide the management practice of natural protected areas in China.
After human beings entered the age of eco-civilization, problems such as the quality decline of natural ecological environment and the deficiency of public moral consciousness have become increasingly prominent. It is urgent to find a new theoretical tool to restore the natural ecosystem and reconstruct the human public morality. The paper analyzed the genealogy of community theories, and explored the relationship between institutional development of national parks and the forming of communities. The results showed that community theory can provide a theoretical basis and a practical guidance for the national park construction. Through the analysis of the development of national park models in the world, it is found that there are three sets of relationships between the concept of national park institutions and the type of communities. Firstly, the national park on the institutional practice of right fairness vs. an abstract community for eco-space justice, which are the same ethic basis for the European countries, the countries in the New World, and China in the start-up stage of the national park construction. Secondly, the national park institutions under eco-space governance vs. a geopolitical community, which can be found in the North American and African countries which have experienced a period of human-nature conflicts and the rights deprivation of the aboriginal peoples in the national park construction. Thirdly, the national park institutions with human-nature coexistence vs. a dis-embedded imagine community which is an ideal period for the forming of emotional link cross the regions and dis-embedded community. There are three key points to promote the community-oriented national park institutions, that is to establish the legal basis for the formation of communities in national parks, to construct a foundation for common rights for the social communities, and to produce innovatively multi-agent participation mechanism for the formation of the real communities so as to provide a China solution for the promotion of the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
As important symbols of beautiful China, protected areas are the core carriers of ecological civilization construction. Through content analysis with visualized software CiteSpace, this paper explores the topical changing process and characteristics of domestic study on protected areas, to penetratingly reveal the research status and problems, and put forward research prospects. The results show that: (1) The research course can be divided into three stages: the initial exploration (1998-2008), the diversified expansion (2009-2018), and the deepening development (2019-present). (2) Domestic research generally evolves from "natural resource investigation", "exploitation", "system construction", to "multi-governance". The research centers around five topics: system construction, spatial distribution and control, monitoring and evaluation of ecology, the mutual development of protected areas and community and the recreational exploitation of protected areas. Each topic presents different stage characteristics and evolution trends. (3) Based on the current research status and the new era background, the research framework of protected areas and the scientific issues of five research directions are proposed, including the deepening research on institutional construction in the context of protected areas system construction, the research on "nature-human-society" composite ecosystem of protected areas, the research on benign interaction between protected areas and communities, and the research on recreational exploitation and management of protected areas.
The peripheral area of the nature reserve is the place that attracts tourism service facilities concentrated and undertakes the important functions of ecological protection and regional socio-economic development. Clarifying the spatial evolution characteristics and mechanism of the peripheral area of the nature reserve is significant for the nature reserve's overall protection and sustainable development. From land-use change analysis, this study discusses the spatial evolution of the peripheral area of Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve under the tourism-led development model. This paper firstly defines the three functional spaces of "ecological stability function - production and living function - tourism service function" in the peripheral area of the nature reserve, and constructs the 3-functional-space identification method based on the division of land-use types. Then through multi-source data analysis, this paper shows the spatial evolution of the peripheral area of Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve from 2005 to 2020, and discusses the driving mechanism. Results show that: (1) The peripheral area of Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve is dominated by ecological stability function space, but gradually transformed into production and living function space and tourism service function space, and the change of function space is mainly concentrated in the periphery of cities and towns with intensive human activities. (2) The ecological stability function space increases first and then decreases, and the landscape pattern is gradually diversified. The functional space for production and living has been increasing, and the rapid development of urbanization has promoted the transformation of a large number of ecological stability functional spaces. The functional space of tourism services has increased significantly, gradually forming an industrial structure dominated by tourism, and promoting the transformation from ecological stability functional space, production and living functional space to tourism functional space. (3) The transformation of functional space is affected by the natural environment, policy guidance, social and economic development and other factors. Among them, policy guidance, urban development and tourism industry development are the main driving forces to promote the transformation of the three functional spaces.
The nature reserve system, mainly national parks, is an important source of carbon sinks for China's terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Taking the Wuyi Mountain National Park tourism-ecosystem as the main research object, using a bottom-up approach and the whole life cycle (lca) tourism carbon footprint analysis method, and using data from the national park's land geographic information system (GIS) platform, we focused on the Wuyi Mountain National Park's full-cycle carbon footprint measurement, the carbon sequestration capacity and analysis of different land types, the carbon source and carbon sink. The results show that: (1) The total carbon emission of the national park in 2019 was 2864481.86 t, of which the carbon footprint of tourism was 2836467.58 t. Transportation, catering and accommodation were the three segments with the highest carbon footprint, accounting for 65.28%, 28.58% and 3.04% respectively, and the overall carbon emission of tourism in general showed a more obvious upward trend between 2015 and 2019, but the growth rate of carbon emissions was not entirely consistent with the trend of changes in the growth of the number of tourists. (2) The carbon sequestration in national parks in 2019 was 126862.61 t. Tree woodland, bamboo woodland and shrub woodland were the three land types with the highest carbon sequestration capacity, at 103664.98 t, 219035.11 t and 1054.87 t, hard broad species and horsetail pine are the forest types with the most important carbon sink capacity. (3) Wuyi Mountain National Park tourism-ecosystem is a carbon sink with an average annual net carbon sink of 88241.86 t. However, the national park is a significant carbon source based on the analysis of the whole life cycle results, with the ratio of ecosystem carbon uptake to total carbon emission of 4.48% and the net carbon source value of 2737619.25 t. The carbon footprint efficiency of ecotourism in national parks in 2019 was 12698.28 yuan/t, which is a high efficiency level globally. (4) Building a tourist growth system, developing a carbon neutral behaviour promotion system for enterprises and improving the legal protection system for nature reserves are important carbon neutrality path options for national parks.
The national park boundary is essential for balancing ecological and socio-economic values. As the prerequisite for comprehensive planning and scientific management of national parks, the national park boundary demarcation concerns the coordinated development of ecological environment and social economy within the national park region. Using theoretical analysis of ecological security and overall coordination, this paper proposed a theoretical framework for the demarcation of national park boundaries, established a model methodology for the demarcation of national park boundaries based on ecological security and overall coordination patterns, and applied them to the proposed Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon National Park as a case study for verification. And the results can be detailed as follows: (1) Under the research paradigm of "plaque-resistance surface-corridor", the foundation of the original protected region and typical landscape were incorporated into the ecological security assessment system, and a methodological model based on ecological security and overall coordination was established to make up for the weak protection of core values and the single orientation of the previous nature reserve boundary delineation. (2) 10 ecological patches, 5 key corridors and 11 auxiliary corridors in Nyingchi city were identified, followed by analysis of the original protected foundation and typical landscape, and determination of the basic boundaries based on ecological security together with water bodies, mountains and administrative boundaries, the demarcation area was 11200 km2. (3) The above results were taken together, through the superposition of spatial data such as population, urbanization, scenic spots and boundary control, the boundary schemes based on coordinated development and territorial sovereignty orientation were determined and the demarcation areas were 16300 km2 and 37300 km2, respectively. This study aims to fill the gaps in the current research on national park boundary demarcation, explore the method and provide theoretical and practical reference for future national park construction.
National parks are the most important nature reserves, which have unique advantages in protecting the ecological environment, and promoting economic and social development. Quantitative analysis of the impact of human activities on key ecosystem services, and scientific assessment of the main existing problems can help national parks regulate their protection and utilization behavior and enhance their capacity for sustainable development. In this study, we used InVEST model and generalized additive model to explore the spatio-temporal patterns of human activities and key ecosystem services, including water conservation, soil conservation, carbon sequestration and habitat quality, and analyzed the impacts of human activities on ecosystem services in Qilian Mountain National Park. The results showed that: (1) The intensity of human activities in the study area gradually decreased from 2000 to 2019, the overall spatial distribution characteristics are high in the west and low in the east. (2) Soil conservation, carbon sequestration and habitat quality all showed an increasing trend, with a distribution pattern of low in the west and high in the east. However, the amount of water conservation increased first and then decreased, and there was obvious spatial heterogeneity, which changed significantly during the study period. (3) There was a negative correlation between human activities and habitat quality, carbon sequestration and soil conservation. The results indicate that the increase of human activity intensity will directly affect the provision of key ecosystem services in national parks. It is suggested that the future management of national parks and the formulation of related ecological protection policies should fully consider the impact of human activities. According to the intensity of human activities, targeted zoning management and control will be implemented to improve the effectiveness of protection.
Cultural ecosystem services (CES) in natural resource areas is an effective tool to protect and enhance the value of resources and benefit the people. Digital development is the demand of the times for its efficient realization of multiple functions, which urgently needs academic exploration. This study puts forward the concept of digital cultural ecosystem service (D-CES). Taking the cyberspace of five places in China (Three-River-Source National Park, National Park of Hainan Tropical Forest, Giant Panda National Park, Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park and Wuyishan National Park) as cases, based on a digital field survey and multi-stage questionnaire interview, combining the qualitative exploration and quantitative analysis of grounded theory, this paper constructs the digital cultural ecosystem service (D-CES) scale, and tests its effect on the travel behavior of potential tourists. The conclusions are as follows: (1) The digital cultural ecosystem service (D-CES) of the national park includes 5 themes and 18 secondary categories. (2) The D-CES measurement scale contains 5 dimensions (educational value, aesthetic value, social value, spiritual value, and entertainment value) and 16 items were compiled and verified. (3) Through the criterion validity test, the study found the impact of different dimensions on potential tourists' travel intention. (4) Finally, the research provides strategies for the construction of digital cultural ecosystem service in national parks.
The present study was carried out in Lishan Nature Reserve. Firstly, the evaluation index system for the ecological environment carrying capacity in forest community near tourist roads was constructed from multiple angles in this paper. Secondly, all the samples were classified using a two-way indicator species analysis method, and the characteristics of different forest communities were studied, especially the critical types. Thirdly, the comprehensive ecological information of all the samples was extracted by detrended correspondence analysis method, the ecological distance of each sample was calculated, and their ecological environment carrying capacity was also measured. At last, the correlations among the ecological environmental carrying capacity in forest community and the evaluation indicators measuring for the ecological environmental carrying capacity in forest community and various geographic factors were identified. The results showed that: (1) Forest communities can be divided into 7 different types in Lishan Nature Reserve: the group of no therophytes-more seedlings-more chamaephytes, the group of no therophytes-the most seedlings-no chamaephytes, the group of no therophytes-no chamaephyte-the most cryptophytes, the group of less therophytes-no chamaephytes-no cryptophytes, the group of the most therophytes-medium seedlings-more chamaephytes, the group of more therophytes-few seedlings-no shrubs, the group of less therophytes-the least seedlings-less shrubs. (2) The calculation results of the ecological environment carrying capacity in forest community near tourist roads showed that: in all the samples, 33 were unoverloaded, and 7 were overloaded, with an overload rate of 17.07%. (3) In part, most of the evaluation indicators (such as the coverage of shrub layer, the important value of tree and shrub landscape, the important value ratio of phaenerophytes and hemicryptophyte and the quantity of seedling) which were used for measuring ecological environment carrying capacity in forest community were significantly correlated with slope, however, they had no correlation with other geographical factors. Nevertheless, the correlation between the ecological environment carrying capacity in forest community and the geographical factors was not significant on the whole. In addition, the correlation was significant between the ecological environment carrying capacity in forest community and the index in terms of not only the vertical and horizontal structure of the community (such as the coverage of tree and herbaceous layer and the landscape important value of trees and the herbaceous) but also the ratio of life form (such as the important value ratio of therophytes and chamaephytes).
The pro-environmental behavior of tourists is an effective way to fully implement the concept of ecological civilization and vigorously promote the more efficient, more equitable and more sustainable development of natural protected areas. Based on the value-belief-norm theory and the emotional appraisal theory, Yuzui Wetland Park in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province was selected as the sample collection site, and the mixture methods of online survey and on-site survey were used to collect the data. The AMOS 26.0 software was used to construct a second-order structural equation model and explore the driving mechanism of tourists' pro-environmental behavior in natural protected areas. The results showed that: (1) Environmental values, environmental beliefs, moral norms and moral emotions are the key influencing factors of tourists' pro-environmental behavior. (2) Environmental values are the basic variables, which indirectly and positively affect pro-environmental behavior of tourists through the environmental beliefs, the moral norms and the moral emotions. (3) Environmental beliefs and moral norms are important mediating variables of tourists' pro-environmental behavior, and they both have multiple chain mediating effects in the relationship between environmental values and pro-environmental behavior. Moral norms can directly affect tourists' pro-environmental behavior and indirectly affect tourists' pro-environmental behavior through moral emotions. (4) Moral emotions are the most direct and important factors, which have a positive and significant promoting effect on tourists' pro-environmental behavior. Accordingly, suggestions were provided for the stimulation of tourists' pro-environmental behavior from the aspects of ecocentrism values cultivation, environmental beliefs education, moral norms regulation and moral emotions edification, etc., so as to realize the high-quality development of natural protected areas.
As a popular natural scenic spot in the city, urban nature park often faces the problem of crowding due to its scarcity. However, the crowding problem of this type of scenic spot has received insufficient attention in academic circles. In order to explore the relationship among visitors' crowding perception, adjusting mechanism and satisfaction, this paper introduces the theoretical model of "perception of crowding-adjusting mechanism-emotion-visitor satisfaction" and takes Dafushan Forest Park, a typical urban natural park in the south of Guangzhou, China, as a case study. According to data analysis of 449 questionnaires collected by convenience sampling, this paper uses a structural equation model to analyze the relationship among crowding perception, adjusting mechanism and visitor satisfaction. The results show that: (1) The adjusting mechanism can be divided into five types, namely no adjustment, temporal adjustment, spatial adjustment, activity adjustment and cognitive adjustment, of which, the adjusting mechanism has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between perception of crowding and visitor satisfaction. (2) The relationship between perception of crowding and tourist satisfaction is partly mediated by emotion, the mediating effect of positive emotion is more significant than that of negative emotion. Crowding perception not only directly and negatively affects visitors' satisfaction, but also indirectly affects it through positive and negative emotions. (3) Visitors who engage in different types of activities show certain differences in the choice of adjusting. For example, tourists who engage in social activities have higher activity adjustment levels than those who engage in sports activities and cultural activities. This paper proposes that scenic spots should formulate more effective management measures, for example, establish smart scenic spots to guide tourists to adjust and relieve the perception of congestion, pay attention to the emotional experience of visitors, and enrich the activities of scenic spots to promote visitors' activity adjustment level. This paper conducts a comprehensive study on the crowding perception of urban natural parks that used to be lack of attention, and introduces the adjusting mechanism as a moderator and emotion as a mediator for discussion on the relationship between perception of crowding and tourist satisfaction. It enriches studies on natural parks and crowding, as well as helps to promote the sustainable development of this type of scenic spots.
The administrative division principle of "mountains and rivers form convenience" artificially splits the continuous habitat, leading to habitat fragmentation. Habitat fragmentation has a negative edge effect, which requires a higher cost to maintain biodiversity, resulting in inefficient financial investment in nature conservation. The implementation of cross-regional natural conservation is an effective way to solve the above problems. This study introduces the edge effect theory of conservation biology, traces the theoretical basis for the spatial spillover effect of cross-regional natural conservation on nature conservation investment, and constructs a spatial econometric theoretical model of the factors affecting the level of nature conservation investment. Taking nature reserves in 31 provincial-level regions as samples, the empirical test results of the model show that the investment level of nature conservation has a positive spatial dependence among different administrative regions, and cross-regional natural conservation is the dominant factor leading to the spatial effect of the investment level of nature conservation, and the greater the intensity of cross-regional natural conservation, the lower the investment level of financial funds in contiguous areas. Finally, the study puts forward the following suggestions: establish cross-regional natural conservation institutions and coordination mechanisms for nature reserves at the provincial and national levels, and fully open the optimization and integration of cross administrative protected areas in terms of boundary scope and protection focus. The management organization of joint protected areas should strengthen the overall use of financial funds, set up special protection funds for focus species, and promote the coordinated solution of habitat fragmentation by more efficient financial investment.
Rational spatial structure is a precondition of good governance of natural protected area system, and scientific spatial relationship among protected area units is the basis of spatial structure. The Great Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) is a model for dealing with multiple spatial relations in protected area clusters. Based on the 9-Intersection Model (9-IM) in topology theory, the relationship between two protected areas is further simplified into three types, namely interdependent, overlapped and nested. Therefore, the complex relationship among different protected areas within a protected area cluster can be predigested into spatial relationship between two protected areas. After the construction of core unit, main unit, system supplement and landscape scale planning, the boundary overlapping relationship of GYE protected area units is gradually resolved and the spatial relationship of external interdependence and internal nesting is established successively, the symbiosis of land use circle layer and the spatial interdependence in landscape scale are formed on a larger scale. The protected area cluster has formed a spatial structure with national parks as the core, national forests as the main body, and other types of protected areas as the supplements. The formation process of spatial structure contains the thinking of "foundation-approach-goal": (1) solving land ownership problem is the material basis of protected area cluster space control; (2) adaptive government governance is the realization way of protected area cluster development; (3) sustainable resource protection and utilization is the goal of protected area cluster construction. For the optimization and integration of protected areas in China, the space control approach shall focus on the spatial relationship of protected area units and spatial structure of protected area clusters; top-down and bottom-up shall be applied as a combination in the governmental governance for natural protected area system construction.
Scientific zoning is an important step for national parks to maintain the integrity and stability of natural ecosystem and achieve multi-objective integrated management, which is conducive to the efficient management and protection of natural resources. As a new mode of national park practice in China, "controlled zoning and functional zoning" aims to realize the hierarchical transmission from unified management and control of land space to classified management and protection of park resources, and make up for the deficiency of the controlled zoning, such as extensive planning and management. By analyzing the national park zoning experience in China, the two-level zoning model has three characteristics "consistency, difference and resilience". There are complex and diverse problems in the spatial relationship between the two types of zoning in the practice of two-level zoning model of national parks in China. After combing the connotation and management and control requirements of the two types, we find that they have three characteristics of consistency, difference and elasticity. Based on the three characteristics of the two-level zoning model, this paper establishes an evaluation index system of ecological importance, ecological sensitivity, recreation suitability and community development suitability. Selecting Shennongjia National Park system pilot area as the study area, we proposed the technical process of demarcation of the two-level zoning model. Considering the comprehensive analysis and evaluation results, the controlled zoning of Shennongjia National Park can be divided into core protected area and general controlled area; the functional zoning of the park can be divided into strict protection area, ecological conservation area, traditional using area and recreational area. In order to coordinate the relationship between ecological protection, community and recreational utilization, this paper further expounds the zoning demarcation and planning strategy of the area where the contradiction between man and land is prominent. This method of the two-level zoning provides reference for the demarcation of the secondary zoning of national parks.
Chinese national park communities are normally highly dependent on environmental resources, while national park resource protection policies restrict community resource use, leading to a long-term conflict between national park management and community development. Adaptive management theory is employed in this paper to reduce the conflict between conservation and development and improve the social-ecosystem resilience of national park communities. Based on the "Pressure-State-Response" model, the grounded theory method is adopted to forward the adaptive collaborative governance framework of national park communities with semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with the stakeholders of Sanjiangyuan National Park. The results show that as a dynamic social-ecological system, the adaptive factors of national park communities include social, economic, ecological and institutional ones, with the adaptive subjects divided into individual and community. It is believed that the core of adaptive governance lies in the autonomy of the whole process of community participation and the synergy of multiple subjects, emphasizing the participation of multiple subjects and the integration of overall interests. To address the problems of sectoral-or-regional oriented interest, single source of compensation, insufficient funds and low level of community participation, this paper proposes an adaptive and collaborative governance path to promote the development of national park communities by improving the collaborative and interactive governance mechanism, guiding social capital investment and social security, and promoting the endogenous development capacity of communities, in the hope to enhance the social-ecological system resilience of Sanjiangyuan National Park and promote the coordinated development of national park communities.
The operational mechanism of separation of decision-making, implementation and regulation power is an important element of the national park administrative system. It is particularly important for China's nature reserves, which have the complex relationship between people and land. And the nature reserves have long been "ruled by nine dragons", which means multiple protected areas have been established in the same space and managed by deferent administrations. In this paper, we focus on national parks, the leading nature reserves in China, to analyze the necessity and feasible model of administrative decentralization system. As we all know that the national parks are independent units with multiple elements and high interrelationship. For their management, they are taken as independent natural resource assets management unit, and they are managed under the principle of "ecological conservation first". Based on these and functional decentralization theory, we study the theoretical framework and operation mode of the separation between daily management and ecological regulation functions. Combined with the principles of national park system reform, we think it necessary to centralize the power in daily management, and to decentralize in decision-making and regulation. This can successfully avoid the drawbacks of total centralization. At the division of responsibilities at the micro level, the responsibilities of the forestland and grassland department as the main manager, and the ecological environment department as the main regulator, are determined. Each specific national park is under the daily management of the national park management agency within its space scope, and the ecological environment department regulates the administrative actions. Furthermore, we have discussed the division of responsibilities in two key areas: quality monitoring of ecological environment, and the law-enforcement of resources and environment. The administrative agency is responsible for ecological and environmental monitoring within national parks, and the monitoring is under the norms and relevant standards formulated by the regulation department. In the area of integrated enforcement, as the main body responsible for national park conservation, the management agencies perform the responsibility of comprehensive law-enforcement of resources and environment, which is part of daily management, within the scope of national parks; and the enforcement performed by the eco-environment department is under the regulation category, whose subjects are national park management agencies and relevant local governments.
