The proposal for national parks was filed at the 11th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National Congress on the People on Tuesday. During the presentation, the maximum head of the National Forest and Meadow Administration Guan Zhiou, he stressed that China is building the world’s largest national park system.
In 2015, a pilot program was started for national parks, having established the first five national parks in 2021. In 2022, 49 potential zones were identified for new conservation zones.
However, Guan points out that there are a number of obstacles to the development of national parks, due to the lack of legislation.
“Issues such as the lack of a legal basis for planning, establishment, protection, management and oversight have emerged as urgent problems that need to be solved to facilitate the construction of national parks,” he said.
The formulation of the law was included in this year’s legislative work plans of the CNP Standing Committee and the State Council.
The project, consisting of seven chapters and 62 articles, provides that national park designs must consist of ecologically representative natural systems of China, to be aligned with national interests and public welfare, and to collect the collective goal for the establishment of a mechanism led by the Government with multi-party and public participation.
The project defines the supervision and management responsibilities of the state Council’s competent services, the management agency of national parks and local governments where national parks are located.
In addition, the project provides for scientific planning of the overall development configuration of national parks and rational determination of its number and scale. Authorities must now create ordering plans and identify potential sites based on the distribution of natural ecological resources and their protection needs.
Demarcation of national park boundaries must take into account the integrity of natural ecosystems and the socio-economic development strategies of the surrounding areas, read in the document can be read.
The project prohibits other types of protected natural areas within the national parks, which divide in central protection zones and general control zones. This is because human activities are usually prohibited in the central protection zones, but allowed with strict limitations in general control zones.
According to the project, the management agencies of the national parks must develop global plans for their jurisdictions and improve administration regulations.
In addition, protection measures will be applied to various natural ecosystems and specific conservation objectives in the national park areas.
Priority will be given to damaged ecosystems in a natural recovery phase and important habitats. Regular patrols and emergency response mechanisms for disaster prevention, safety management and emergency support will be equally established.
The project equally predicts measures to encourage residents and businesses to provide products and services that coadunate with the conservation goals of the national parks that are near them.
Local residents will take priority in eco conservation work in the national parks and will be encouraged to dedicate themselves to commercial services in the surrounding areas.
Efforts will be made to encourage the various actors to participate in the construction and protection of national parks and promote the utilities functions of the parks.
In addition, the project proposes the creation of a diverse system of guarantee of funding from the national parks, essentially funded by the state, simultaneously encouraging social capital to support the construction of national parks. It equally requests improvement of the ecological protection compensation mechanism of national parks.
