A Study On The Establishment And The Standards For National Parks In China

With the accelerating development of urbanization and the increase in people’s living standards in transitional China, the increasingly popular nature tourism has been promoting the massive exploitation and utilization of natural heritage, and the management of natural environment and resources have become an increasingly important issue. On the one hand, heritage areas in China have continuously expanded and a heritage site system has been established; on the other hand, some problems, such as the weakness of management, the lack of management experience, the inconsistent in relevant standards, the shortage of funds, and the serious contradiction between protection and utilization of resources, have stood out. Therefore it is a major task to develop an advanced concept of nature protection and create a scientific and effective mode for China’s natural heritage management. Based on this background, this dissertation discusses the necessity and feasibility to establish national parks in China, examines the aims of and the standards for their establishment of such national parks with Chinese characteristics, by applying the theories of sustainable development, system, ecological management, repeated games, co-evolution and other related theories and adopting several research methods such as document research, field investigation, statistical analysis, comparative analysis and other empirical investigations.The paper first examines the necessity and feasibility for China to establish national parks through a questionnaire survey of experts and the general public, in the context of the problems existing in the heritage resources management system, such as multiple goals, multiple management entities, and enterprise-oriented management. It argues that the establishment of national parks in China is a national strategy to manage heritage resources, and is necessary for their sustainable development and standardized management, for the elimination of shortcomings in the current system, and for the development of green tourism, ecological protection and international cooperation. Secondly, the paper puts forward the hypothesis of benefit coordination with protection priority, and sets up a corresponding theoretical model for national parks, and then compares and evaluates the concepts, aims of and standards for the establishment of national parks proposed by some representative international organizations, national parks in foreign countries, and China’s various national heritage sites, identifies the main evaluation factors, absorbs the new elements found in the research,and designs an index model and indicator system for setting standards of national parks in China. Thirdly, taking the World Natural Heritage of Taining Danxia as case studies, the paper further confirms the defects and risks of damage to the nature existing in the current heritage management system and methods, and verifies the feasibility and applicability of the standards designed and their effects to solve the contradiction between the protection and utilization of heritage resources. It concludes that the national park is an effective management model which China can draw on and must be established soon to manage its natural heritage. The paper argues that the model can effectively solve the existing problems in the management of heritage sites, and concludes that the standards for the establishment of national parks in China designed by the paper are feasible, applicable and scientific, and is of practical value and decision-making reference.