Building a unified Chinese national park system: Historical lessons learned from the United States
Received date: 2014-05-13
Request revised date: 2014-09-21
Online published: 2014-12-10
Copyright
The authors present a comparative historical analysis of the development and evolution of the national park systems in United States and China. The analysis is based on 10 years of research focusing on national park system development in both countries, along with data collected during a recent Fulbright collaborative research project. The analysis begins with a comprehensive historical review of the U.S. national park system development from the 1870s to the present. The authors describe how over time a cohesive national system emerged that unifies 401 diverse park units. By comparison, the authors then describe the process by which over the past four decades of increasing openness to the outside world, the Chinese government constructed and implemented a decentralized and heterogeneous national park system distributed across multiple government agencies. Still early in its development, the system is characterized by disparate policy and nomenclature frameworks reflecting the varying goals and priorities of the agencies. The authors conclude with three points. First, the global national park movement has been shaped by mutual learning between nations, resulting in a unique form of land use that combines environment protection with sustainable development for human benefit. Second, as an early adopter and innovator, the experience and management information accumulated about the U.S. national park system serves as a useful example for the rest of the world. Third, as a late adopter, the national park system in China has evolved in a decentralized fashion across government departments and agents, leading to inefficiencies, lack of cohesion, and limited effectiveness. The authors conclude by calling for government policy-makers and academics to engage in a multi-partner dialogue aimed at normalizing the national park management regime, building support for thoughtful policy development by the top-levels of government, and suspension of national park pilot projects until a more unified and cohesive vision for the Chinese national park system is agreed upon.
WANG Lianyong , HOLLENHORST Steven . Building a unified Chinese national park system: Historical lessons learned from the United States[J]. GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, 2014 , 33(12) : 2407 -2417 . DOI: 10.11821/dlyj201412017
Tab. 1 Evolvement of various park categories within the US national park system表1 美国国家公园体系中不同公园类型的发展概貌[15] |
新分类名称 | 数量 | 总面积(km2) | 面积比率(%) | 2012年访客总量 | 2012年访客比率(%) | 1993-2012年公园单位平均游量(人次) | 2008-2012年公园单位平均游量(人次) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
国家公园类 | 59 | 211065.92 | 61.8 | 65103764 | 23.1 | 1142454 | 1076035 |
国家保护区类 | 78 | 8104.33 | 2.4 | 21563232 | 7.6 | 354546 | 325292 |
国家历史公园类 | 46 | 754.15 | 0.2 | 28647174 | 10.2 | 765802 | 667643 |
国家战事公园类 | 25 | 288.18 | 0.1 | 9809689 | 3.5 | 402521 | 402859 |
国家纪念地类 | 29 | 43.44 | 0.01 | 35440113 | 12.6 | 755370 | 1123851 |
国家历史遗迹类 | 79 | 139.05 | 0.04 | 10139688 | 3.6 | 153792 | 131939 |
国家游憩区与公园大道类 | 22 | 15706.03 | 4.6 | 74068532 | 26.3 | 3812715 | 3708683 |
国家滨水公园类 | 29 | 6385.75 | 1.9 | 28350991 | 10.0 | 1182311 | 1095490 |
国家保留区类 | 18 | 97888.51 | 28.7 | 2891731 | 1.0 | 270871 | 312717 |
其他公园类 | 16 | 1287.42 | 0.4 | 6150685 | 2.2 | 550020 | 716720 |
Fig. 1 Annual visitation evolving trend within US national parks and US national park system图1 1904-2012年美国国家公园及国家公园体系游客接待量年度变化[15] |
Fig. 2 The rapid evolving trend of China's national level parks in 2001-2013图2 2001-2013年中国国家级公园网络发展态势 |
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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