Evolution of Regulations Controlling Human Pressure in Protected Areas of China

Abstract

Facing the serious challenge of human pressure on biodiversity conservation, a growing interest has been aroused in adaptive pathways for conservation law and regulations. Unlike studies that discuss improvement pathways based on well-established systems in the developed world, building up a scientific, effective regulatory system is the major challenge faced in China. We analyzed the evolution of protection regulations and divided them into three main stages. In the first two stages, conservation regulations followed a parallel core logic of national reform and development, resulting in rules that were too stringent or served only departmental interests. In the third stage, the reform of territorial spatial planning incorporated various PAs, reconciling ecological protection with the needs of agriculture and urbanization for land use. We attribute the success of the third stage to a more comprehensive policy and legal framework that integrates the system of protected areas and spatial planning, making conservation rules more scientific and enforceable. Several suggestions to enhance current reforms are then proposed. This study also provides international insight into limiting the impact of human activities on protected areas through scientifically integrated spatial planning and strict use controls.

1. Introduction

Today, humans are impacting the natural environment on an unprecedented scale [1], which has caused a series of problems such as imbalances in ecosystem structures, decreases in ecosystem function, and the loss of biodiversity [2]. Thus, biodiversity conservation is an acknowledged priority in international and national laws and policies [3], under which protected areas (PAs) play a key role in the conservation framework [4]. A key controversy in conservation is the relationship between people and nature [5]. The 20 Aichi targets adopted at the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) required signatory countries to expand their network of PAs to cover 17% of the global land area before 2020 [6], and the COP is drafting the 2030 action targets to ensure that at least 30% of land areas and sea areas conserved globally are effectively and equitably managed [7,8]. Despite these efforts, one third of global protected land is under intense human pressure [9], and the PAs in China are facing the same impacts of the expansion of human pressure [10], which is frequently cited as a primary cause of declines in species and ecosystems [11,12].

To achieve effective conservation of biodiversity, restrictions on human activities are stipulated in the laws related to PAs in many countries [13]. Usually, such restrictions exist in the form of zoning and permits. The implementation of laws is closely related to the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation [14,15], but legislation alone cannot achieve effective conservation. The strictness of laws managing human pressure in PAs does not result in a corresponding protective effect [16]. In general, three major themes emerged from discussing the legal norms regulating PAs and their adjoining areas [17]. First, the initial control pattern of PAs conceived as human-exclusion zones (the segregate model) was proven to be misleading and ineffective [17,18] and gradually moved towards an integrative model with multiple rational utilizations [19,20], and more attention has been paid to protection by promoting social–ecological sustainability in PAs [21]. Second, there is a transition from central control to democratic and local control in the management of PAs; cooperation with local people is now receiving more attention in achieving management goals [22,23]. Third, in terms of the targets and methods of protected area management, the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and habitats are receiving increasing attention; these impacts include the migration of sensitive plant and animal taxa and habitat fragmentation, and conservation law should take an adaptive approach to actively respond to these changes [3,24,25,26].

In general, the development of China’s legal system for PAs is increasingly focused on a sustainable socioecological development model and the recent changes in China’s conservation law can provide an international reference. At present, China has unified the planning of its national land space, including various types of nature reserves, and implemented strict land use control, effectively safeguarding ecological space and controlling the intrusion of human activities into the PAs of China. The development of the system can be divided into three main stages according to the degree of improvement of the regulations and the effect of their implementation. After 1978, the establishment and management of PAs in China accelerated along with rapid economic and social development [27,28]; however, the legislation related to the management of PAs in China has not kept pace with the establishment and administration of its management objects [28]. Initially, the ruling on PAs lagged behind the practices, but recently there has been promising progress in the laws and policies related to the management of PAs [29]. In the initial stage, regulations followed a strict model of human activity exclusion, and in the second stage, although regulations were developed to promote ecological conservation through the delineation of ecological space, the laws and policies at this stage were too narrow in purpose, failed to integrate the needs of social development and ecological conservation, and lacked enforcement tools [30,31]. Finally, the “three zones and three lines” control model under the National Territorial Spatial Planning system was officially introduced, and this model takes into account the sustainable development needs between society and ecology. However, current research has neither paid enough attention to the distinctive character in the third stage nor explained the intrinsic motivation of legal development that underlies the policy adjustments at this stage accurately. This paper aims to fill the gap in this research area. In light of the above, the main aims of this study are (1) to focus on the developmental changes in regulations controlling human pressure in PAs of China; (2) to evaluate the reasons for their successes and failures; (3) to provide certain borrowings and experiences; and (4) to provide some suggestions for the improvement of the legal system.

2. Methods

This article mainly applies normative and comparative analysis. The legal resources that are the subjects of this study include international law agreements, international legislation, and domestic legislation directly related to protected area management in China. The laws included in this study are based on the criterion of relevance to protected land planning and regulation, and include the “Regulations on Nature Reserves (RNR)” (1994 version), the “Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China” (2014 version), the “Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Nature Reserves” (2017 version), the “Outline of the Development Plan for Nature Reserves in China (1996–2010)”, and the “Guidance on Establishing a System of Protected Areas with National Parks as the Main Body”.

Normative analysis is the most frequently used legal methodology in civil law countries, and it also runs through this research to analyze the changes in the conservation philosophy, objectives, and implementation effectiveness of protected area management laws and policies in China. First, based on the strictness of the relevant regulations in restricting human activities in protected areas and the effectiveness of their implementation since 1994, this paper divides the evolution of regulations controlling human pressure in PAs of China into three stages. Second, this paper analyzes the reasons for the failure of conservation law in the first two stages from both factual and institutional perspectives. Finally, this paper examines the reforms in territorial spatial planning since 2018 and analyzes the positive impact of new policies and the reorganization of administrative agencies in this stage on reducing human pressure in PAs of China. On the basis of the above analysis, this paper puts forward suggestions that the change in Chinese conservation laws can offer to other countries, and makes some suggestions for the improvement of conservation laws of China.

This paper also uses the method of comparative analysis to compare the common requirements of and differences between China’s and international PA management from the perspective of the two aspects of factual contexts and administrational mechanisms. On the factual level, this paper points out that China’s PAs are faced with different factual contexts than those of other countries, especially high-income countries, which results in different legislative objectives and management methods. Many nature reserves in China are located in areas with a long history of agricultural civilization, and long-standing human activities and natural ecosystems have a certain degree of symbiosis; China’s rapid economic development in recent decades has made land demand particularly strong in densely populated areas, which poses a major challenge for the government in terms of balancing ecological protection with agricultural production and urban expansion. At the institutional level, China’s conservation laws and management institutions were once fragmented, and there was a lack of effective communication and coordination between different laws and different departments; only recent institutional reforms have changed these conditions. These factual contexts and administrational mechanisms determine the objectives, systems, and means of China’s conservation law. After the major reform brought forth in 2018, the regulation of PAs was integrated into a comprehensive territorial spatial planning system, effectively balancing ecological protection with the needs of economic development and land development. These innovations in policies and laws have universal implications at the international level. China should also learn from the innovations of worldwide conservation laws in order to compensate for the shortcomings of the existing legal system.

3. Initial Development of Regulations Controlling Human Pressure in PAs of China

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a PA is “a clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values” [32]. The effective management of protected areas and the realization of their objectives depend on sufficient scientific and institutional supply. Prior to 1994, the establishment of PAs in China relied on administrative orders and policies, and although some protected areas were established, national and formal regulations on protected areas were lacking. In 1973, China held its first national conference on environmental protection, at which the Interim Regulations on Nature Reserves (Draft) was discussed; in May 1987, the Environmental Protection Committee of the State Council issued the Outline of Nature Conservation in China. However, none of these had mandatory effects. Only some provinces have enacted local regulations (Regulations on the Management of Nature Reserves in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Regulations on the Management of Nature Reserves in Guizhou Province, Regulations on the Management of Nature Reserves in Hainan Province, etc.), but their specific contents are not uniform, so the development and management of protected areas is actually in the exploratory stage with no nationwide rules to follow.

In 1994, China introduced the Regulations on Nature Reserves (RNR), which provided the first legal basis for controlling human pressure in PAs. From that point on, the development of regulations controlling human pressure in PAs of China can be divided into three stages: (1) 1994–2015, the stage of strict legislation and widespread violations, during which the rules restricting human pressure were never effectively implemented; (2) 2015–2019, during which time an Ecological Conservation Redline (ECR) system was introduced with innovation and good vision but only focused on ecosystem protection and failed to serve sustainable development; and (3) 2019–present, during which time a comprehensive reform has been implemented to achieve coordinated socioecological sustainable development.

3.1. Unenforceable Regulations Remained on Paper: 1994–2014

China has adopted the natural reserve (NR) as the core regime for biodiversity conservation. Two reasons contributed to the development of PA regulations in China in the 1990s. On the one hand, the construction of PAs in China had grown considerably since 1978; by 1990, 70 million hectares of land had been designated as various types of PAs, accounting for about 7% of the country’s land area. The lack of national-level legislation was not conducive to the effective management of such vast PAs. On the other hand, China has participated in the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm since the 1970s, grasping the international trend of environmental protection, in addition to being an early participant in the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program and signing the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992 [33]. China’s Biodiversity Action Plan was published in 1994. As a result, motivated by both domestic PA management and the fulfillment of China’s international obligations, the National People’s Congress of China enacted the Environmental Protection Law of the PRC (EPL) in 1989, and the Regulations on Nature Reserves of the PRC (RNR) was made by the State Council in 1994; the latter document belongs to “administrative regulation” with lower effectiveness in the hierarchy of legislative documents.

The EPL, enacted in 1989, and the RNR, enacted in 1994, constitute the legal foundation that formed the basis of the norms controlling human pressure in PAs in China at this stage. Together, they constitute a strict control model of human pressure. Article 17 of the EPL states the necessity of setting up various PAs, including NRs (Article 17 of the EPL states that “The people’s governments at various levels shall take measures to conserve areas representing various types of natural ecological systems, areas with a natural distribution of rare and endangered wild animals and plants, areas where major sources of water are conserved, geological structures of major scientific and cultural value, famous areas where karst caves and fossil deposits are distributed, traces of glaciers, volcanos and hot springs, traces of human history, and ancient and precious trees. Damage to the mentioned-above shall be strictly forbidden” in “Environ-mental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China” (1989 version). This article became Article 29 of the EPL after revision in 2014), and Article 18 stipulates that no industrial-related facilities shall be built in the PAs (Article 18 of the EPL states that “Within the scenic spots or historic sites, nature reserves and other zones that need special protection, as designated by the State Council, the relevant competent department under the State Council, and the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, no industrial production installations that cause environmental pollution shall be built; other installations to be built in these areas must not exceed the prescribed standards for the discharge of pollutants. If the installations that have been built discharge more pollutants than are specified by the prescribed discharge standards, such pollution shall be eliminated or controlled within a prescribed period of time”. This article was deleted after revision in 2014). Five years later, the RNR divided China’s NRs into three zones—core, buffer, and experimental—requiring the prohibition of all human activities within the core zone and that strict controls be imposed on the remaining buffer and experimental zones (

Table 1. Comparison of the three-zone criteria between MAB and RNR of China.

	UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program [35] https://en.unesco.org/node/314143 (accessed on 2 January 2023)	Regulations on Nature Reserves of the PRC (1994) [36]
Comprehensive Regulations	Biosphere Reserves involve local communities and all interested stakeholders in planning and management. They integrate three main “functions”: Conservation of biodiversity and cultural diversity; Economic development that is socioculturally and environmentally sustainable; Logistic support, underpinning development through research, monitoring, education, and training.	Article 18.a The NR can be divided into core areas, buffer zones, and experimental areas. Article 26. Prohibit logging, grazing, hunting, fishing, medicine, reclamation, burning, mining, quarrying, dredging, and other activities in the NRs; however, except as otherwise provided by laws and administrative regulations. Article 30. The NRs not zoned within the management of the core area and buffer zone following the provisions of these Regulations.
Core Areas	It comprises a strictly protected zone that contributes to the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems, species, and genetic variation.	Article 18.b NRs in a well-preserved natural state of the ecosystem and rare and endangered plants and animals in concentrated distribution should be designated as the core area, prohibiting any unit and individual from entering. Article 27. It is prohibited for anyone to enter the core area of the NR. For scientific research needs must enter the core area to engage in scientific research observation, investigation activities should be submitted to the NR management agencies in the advance application and activity plan, and approved by the NR management agencies.
Buffer Zones	It surrounds or adjoins the core area(s) and is used for activities compatible with sound ecological practices that can reinforce scientific research, monitoring, training, and education.	Article 18.c The periphery of the core area can be designated a buffer zone of a certain area, only allowed to enter to engage in scientific research and observation activities. Article 28. Prohibit tourism and production and business activities in the buffer zone of the NR.
Transition Area	The transition area is where communities foster socioculturally and ecologically sustainable economic and human activities.	Article 18.d The periphery of the buffer zone is designated as an experimental area, which can be entered to engage in scientific experiments, teaching internships, visits, tourism, and activities such as domestication and breeding of rare and endangered wild animals and plants.

). Unfortunately, these strict regulations remained only on paper, and were never taken seriously by the people or the law enforcers. The reasons for this failure are manifold, and include not only the RNR’s legal provisions themselves but also the large number of challenges encountered in the management of NRs [34].

The concept of the “core zone—buffer zone—experimental zone” division of China’s RNR comes directly from the UNESCO MAB. Nonetheless, the human activity control provisions set by the RNR for the three zones are highly different from those of the MAB (Table 1). IUCN categories are arranged in descending order of protection from I to VI. Categories I–IV are managed for biodiversity protection, whereas Categories V and VI are subject to multiple-use management [37]. A biosphere reserve can be mapped to the following: (1) a highly protected core zone (usually category I–IV); (2) a buffer zone which might be category V or VI or managed land/water that would not correspond to an IUCN category; and (3) a transition zone that would not correspond to an IUCN category [32]. In this set of correspondence, only the core zone of the biosphere reserve serves the purpose of biodiversity protection. However, all three zones included in the “NRs” of the RNR provide for strict control measures (categories I–II in IUCN categories) and are significantly different from the zoning of the MAB, and the biosphere PA promotes sustainable use around the core area by harmonizing the relationship between people and PAs [38,39]. Thus, the RNR provision is inherently flawed in that it not only ignores the potential difficulties in implementing the law, but is itself contrary to the requirements of sustainable development.

During this period, the legal rules for the management of China’s PAs remained imperfect, which made the actual management and enforcement of China’s PAs depend heavily on the subjective efforts of managers of PAs and policies instead of laws. This is because the initial emergence of environmental legislation in China was not a natural result of economic development, and the evolution of environmental legislation was detached from the process of China’s economic reform for a long period [40]. Since the reform and development of environmental regulations did not involve the entanglement of crucial resources, including personnel, budget, and financial interests, it followed a different and parallel core logic of national reform and development and relied primarily on the need for “filling international obligations” and “political correctness”. During this period, although Chinese environmental law legislation was gradually improved, it was to a considerable extent only of formal significance and often acted ineffectively on issues involving cross-regional management, fiscal support, and the coordination of interdepartmental relations. As a result, low-level regulations, including administrative regulations, policies, and local regulations, served as the main bases for the actual implementation of environmental laws.

3.2. ECR Policy Served the Single Purpose of Ecosystem Protection: 2014–2019

Although the RNR provides the basic legal framework for NRs in China, it has significant shortcomings. Major problems encountered and criticisms in the first stage included heavy human pressure, a lack of coordination between departments, spatial mismatches, a lack of clear boundaries, and deficiencies in payment for ecosystem services (PES). The first two problems are elaborated on in the following section. As for spatial mismatch, many NRs in eastern China overlap with the growing need for living and industrial space, and the spatial distribution of NRs is often mismatched with areas of high biodiversity; due to this mismatch, approximately 30% of natural ecosystem types, 20% of wild animals, and 40% of higher plants are not included in NRs [31]. Regarding boundaries, different types of PAs often overlap with each other, and the boundaries of PAs are often significantly adjusted to meet various human needs [41]. During the process of rapid urbanization, a large number of natural ecosystems have been occupied by seminatural, semiartificial, or artificial ecosystems, which have severely disrupted the structure and function of the natural ecosystems [42,43]. In addition, the current PES mechanism is imperfect, is mainly led by the government and implemented by financial transfer payment, and lacks market-oriented PES and clear accounting standards [44].

Given these shortcomings, there is a strong urgency to formulate a new environmental policy that can integrate the various types of PAs and provide a legal basis for effective control of human pressure. The Ecological Conservation Redlines (ECRs) (other names of the ECR mentioned in the research include the ecological protection red line (EPRL), ecological redline policy (ERP), and ecological redline (ER)) led by MEP have taken on this task. The concept of “ecological red lines” was mentioned in some policy documents and the National Plan of Main Functional Zones around 2010 and has been piloted in some areas [41], and it was eventually codified in the 2014 revision of the EPL as a formal legal requirement in Article 29. Represented as the “bottom line” and “lifeline”, the ECR has been demarcated to maintain the health and safety of ecological systems, focusing on the protection of important ecologically functional areas, ecologically sensitive areas, and ecologically fragile areas through the implementation of strict controls and legal protection. To implement the ECR effectively, several policy documents have been issued, including Technical Guideline for the Delineation of ECR (2015) [45], and Several Opinions on Delineating and Strictly Protecting the ECR (2017) [46].

The procedure of ECR delineation includes identifying key areas, assessing the ecological protection importance of the areas, overlaying various types of spaces with protection necessities, and approving the ECR boundary through the actual survey. When all these procedures are completed, the ECR can be issued in the name of the Provincial People’s Government to enhance its effectiveness and deterrence. Among these procedures, the most important procedure is the assessment of ecological protection importance, whose components include the assessment of ecosystem service importance, ecological sensitivity, and vulnerability. The ECR consolidates multiple types of PAs already managed by various departments and establishes strictly controlled ecological space [44]. In 2018, certain provinces completed pilots of the ECR that designated about a quarter of their land area to the ECR, significantly exceeding the NRs’ nationwide coverage by around 15%. The ECR also includes more scientific enforcement and monitoring measures, mainly dividing the areas within the ECR into prohibited and restricted development zones. Conditions for issuing permits for necessary development and construction activities have been established, limiting the types of construction projects permitted and the departments authorized to approve them [47]. The Supreme Court of China noted the relationship between areas designated to the ECR and nature reserves when dealing with disputes over mining rights, and a homogeneous treatment scheme was established in its judicial interpretation [48].

However, the ECR still has its flaws, which can lead to two problems, namely the delineation and implementation of the ECR and the relationship between the ECR and sustainable development. First, the delineation of the ECR was implemented under the auspices of MEP, which does not have the approval and regulatory functions for land use control required for effective implementation of the ECR. Administrative agencies in the hierarchical system tend to gain more power and resources in the dynamic power structure by implementing major policies. Therefore, the ECR led by MEP encompasses a very wide geographical area, accounting for far more land area than the original nature reserves and other types of PAs, occupying about 10% to 30% of the land area of each province. Moreover, parts of the arable land and urban land areas are also included in the ECR [49], which could lead to strict control requirements for human activities, result in difficulties in the implementation and enforcement itself, and create disputes between different agencies. Second, the ECR is largely a static control line that does not consider the spatial interconnection of ecological lands, and ignores the communication between ecological spaces and the coordination between ecological spaces and other spaces.

3.3. International Comparison of Similar Ecosystem Protection Plans

The internationally prevailing concept of ecological protection has long gone beyond the stage of designating special areas to implement isolation management. Currently, various ecological protection plans around the world integrate the objectives of biodiversity maintenance, ecosystem service supply, and habitat security maintenance, and have expanded the proportion of land included in the scope of protection and established various ecosystem protection systems and institutions of national and transnational natures.

Systems with similar purposes and contents to the ECR (

Table 2. Comparison between similar ecosystem protection plans.

Ecosystem Protection Plans	Purpose and Content of Protection
Ecological Conservation Redline (ECR)	Officially introduced in EPL in 2014, ECR aimed at maintaining biodiversity, ecosystem service, and habitat security, focusing on the protection of important ecologically functional areas, ecologically sensitive areas, and ecologically fragile areas through the implementation of strict controls and legal protection.
Special Protected Area (SPA) Special Areas of Conservation (SAC)	SPAs are the PAs identified under Birds Directive issued by EEC in 1979, with the aim of protecting migratory birds and endangered bird habitats. SACs are PAs identified under Habitat Directive issued by EEC in 1992 to protect habitats and species.
Natura 2000 Network	The Natura 2000 network was established across the European Union’s Member States to conserve biodiversity while ensuring the sustainability of human activities. It is thus governed by a supranational legislative framework that sets similar conservation objectives across the EU to protect habitats and species of community importance.
Pan European Ecological Network (PEEN)	Fifty-five pan-European countries adopted the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (PEBLDS) at European Ministerial Conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1995. They set out to build a pan-European ecological network, linking isolated critical habitats with ecological corridors, making them spatially integrated, and protecting species’ dispersal and migration.
Greenway Network in the United States	Greenway Network was proposed in the United States Presidential Commission Report in 1987, and was a network of linear open spaces along natural corridors such as riverfronts, stream valleys, and ridgelines, or along artificial corridors such as abandoned rail lines, ditches, and scenic roads used for recreational activities.

) include the Greenway Network in the United States, the ecological network system in Canada [50], the green infrastructure network in the pan-European region, and the cross-border environmental protection network Natura 2000 established by the Birds Directive (1979/409/EEC; 2009/147/EU) and the Habitat Directive (1992/43/EEC). ECR systems have a relatively simple conservation goal compared with several other types of systems, such as the Natura 2000 network, which protects habitats of community importance, and the Greenway network, which focuses on the integration of ecosystem conservation with tourism and recreational functions. In addition to this, ECR systems face other challenges in that the delineation method of the ECR, which only considers ecosystem-related elements, overemphasizes the role of ecological and environmental protection and ignores other potential functions and roles of the ECR, which does not meet the sustainable development requirements of ecosystem protection and synergistic economic and social development [51]. The prohibition and restriction of development measures imposed on the ECR may affect the natural development of the economy and in turn lead to a reduction in investment in ecosystem maintenance.

4. The Cause of Unenforceable Rules

Beyond the shortcomings of the RNR and the initial ECR system itself, a range of factors contribute to the failure of management of human pressure inside PAs, including the factual contexts and policy trade-offs [52]. Overall, PAs in China are facing various challenges, including the fact that vast populations have residences located inside PAs, conflicts between NRs and other types of PAs, natural protection and utilization, and government departments being in charge of different kinds of PAs. These conflicts demonstrate the dilemmas and problems aroused in regulating human pressure in PAs of China, which lead to the demand for better institutional supply and legal development.

4.1. Factual Reasons

The distinctiveness of environmental law issues derives from the distinctiveness of the factual context they regulate [53]. The comparative approach provides a visual representation of the relevant factors affecting the implementation of China’s NR and ECR legislations. The Natura 2000 network established across the European Union has many aspects in common with the ECR system in China; both have not only a common goal of conserving biodiversity and ecosystem service while ensuring the sustainability of ecosystem–society relationships, but also a similar means of enforcement by using zoning and permits. A comparison table was formed based on a report on human activities in national NRs by MEP [54] released in 2014 and the database of Natura 2000 (

Table 3. Presence of several categories of human activities inside Chinese NRs and Europe’s Natura 2000.

Categories of Human Activities		Human Activities Inside 383 Chinese National NRs			Human Activities Inside 14,727 Sites of the Natura 2000 Network (2011 Version of Natura 2000 Database (Release Date: 5 November 2011), European Commission (2000). Natura 2000 Standard Data Form: Explanatory Notes. European Commission, Brussels)
Category	Definition	Numb. of Activity Records	Perc (%) of Activities	Perc (%) of Sites	Numb. of Activity Records	Perc (%) of Activities	Perc (%) of Sites
Farmlands	Land directly or indirectly used for agricultural purposes, including irrigated land and paddies.	340	21.57	88.77	25,726	23.12	69.06
Forestry	Artificial planting and general forestry management.	N/A	N/A	N/A	13,931	12.52	59.12
Hunting, Fishing, and Collecting		N/A	N/A	N/A	14,248	12.81	52.69
Settlements	Rural settlements and small towns.	351	22.27	91.64	10,871	9.77	39.53
Aquatic Farms	Includes freshwater farming and ocean farming.	65	4.12	16.97	N/A	N/A	N/A
Industrial and Mining	Land used for industrial plants or mining, including industrial plants, mining fields, storage tanks, oil-drilling stations, and industrial parks.	93	5.90	24.28	3103	2.79	17.57
Quarries	Land used for stone or sand quarries.	32	2.03	8.36	N/A	N/A	N/A
Energy Infrastructures	Infrastructure for energy production or transit, including wind farms, hydroelectric plants, solar plants, and transformer substations.	36	2.28	9.40	N/A	N/A	N/A
Tourism Infrastructures	Land used for tourism development, including golf fields, holiday villages, temples, and other tourism infrastructures.	105	6.66	27.42	11,721	10.53	42.76
Transportation and Communication	Varieties of roads, including railways, highways, and other roads for vehicles. Trails are not included.	363	23.03	94.78	13,671	12.29	48.80
Others	The human projects in NRs that cannot be categorized into the other nine types.	191	12.12	49.87	10,179	9.15	39.26

). The two types of data are classified differently, and some categories may contain only Chinese or only European data. The types of human pressure significantly differ between Natura 2000 and national NRs; internal agricultural activities, settlements, and transportation facilities are considerably more common in Chinese NRs than in Natura 2000, while hunting and tourism activities are more common in European PAs than in China. The following is a specific analysis of these differences.

First of all, the unique factual context of China’s PAs is the presence of more than 10 million residents in the PAs, and most of the NRs in China have human settlements, even in the core zones. Different from the situation in Europe, China has a long history of farming culture and production, the land suitable for farming has generally been developed, and some ecosystems of symbiosis between humans and nature have been formed. Under the current management system, the exclusion of any productive activity in the buffer zone directly affects the interests of the original inhabitants. Considering the size of the population, it is impossible to implement the regulation to set up a human-excluded core zone, and it is also impossible to require all the original residents to emigrate. At present, such strict management requirements have led to serious conflicts between conservation management and local communities in a significant number of PAs. To resolve these conflicts, it is necessary to implement effective PES, standardize the accounting standards for compensation, define compensation targets, and make eligibility for PES a legal right.

Second, China has experienced rapid economic development that is heavily dependent on land use [55], and in the past 30 years, the conflict between economic development and ecological space has become increasingly intense. The urbanization rate of China has undergone a huge development from 26.42% in 1990 to 64.5% in 2020 [56], and a study shows that compared with agricultural land and 307 residential areas from 2010 to 2015, an increasing trend of development or construction activities in NRs is more pronounced [57]. Taking the issue of navigation in riverine NRs as an example, the division of boundaries in riverine NRs can only be performed in sections, and some sections of rivers are inevitably classified as core and buffer zones, so river navigation is bound to contradict the relevant management regulations of NRs. This contradiction is evident in several established NRs in the Yangtze River in China, where the albino dolphin and rare fish are the main conservation targets [58]. Furthermore, according to Table 3, tourism infrastructure is more common in Europe. In general, this is due to the higher level of economic development in Europe [59]. The development of tourism infrastructure will likely be a long-term trend of human pressure in Chinese PAs, because tourism in China has only begun to develop rapidly in recent decades, and recreational activities such as off-roading and hunting have not yet entered the lifestyle of most Chinese people. In the case of hunting activities, hunting does have negative impacts on biodiversity [60,61], but these are relatively small compared with the importance of habitat covariates related to land use and habitat fragmentation.

Finally, there is often a mismatch between the land ownership and management authorities of PAs in China. Unlike the U.S. federal government, which owns a large amount of federal land and manages it directly with the NLPMA, NEPA, NFMA, and EAS through federal departments [24,62], Article 9 of the Chinese Constitution provides that natural resources, including land and sea, are owned by the state. Unfortunately, this ownership only has a formal significance and does not determine the actual ownership of natural resources; therefore, it is common for various usufruct rights to be imposed on land and forests in PAs, and environmental protection often directly impacts the interests of residents. Different types of societies also influence people’s ways of living in PAs. In the Western world, the term “indigenous people of PAs” usually refers to peoples such as “indigenous people” and the “Sami people of Norway” [23]; in China, most of the people living in PAs are living in traditional agricultural societies and tend to have a strong motivation to improve their life conditions [63], and inducing and providing opportunities for them to participate in decision making on PA and ECR policy could increase the level of compliance with PA conservation policies [22].

4.2. Institutional Reasons

A factual characteristic would give rise to a policy trade-off; stakeholders jointly shaped the face of China’s environmental legislation through policy trade-offs. According to Article 2 of the RNR, “The MEP is responsible for the comprehensive management of NRs nationwide. The forestry, agriculture, geology and minerals, water conservancy, marine, and other relevant administrative departments are in charge of the relevant NRs…”. Therefore, PAs in China follow a unique dual-management system; more than 2700 NRs are managed jointly by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) and six other departments in charge of different ecological elements and natural resources (Figure 1), depending on the main object of the NRs (the object is divided into categories such as forest, marine, wildlife, geological monuments, etc.). As a result, NRs are led by multiple decision makers with different motivations and interests [64]. Furthermore, the NRs are divided into several management levels from national to county level (Figure 2), but in practice, the government performing management responsibilities does not correspond to the level of the NRs, and only very few national NRs are directly managed by the central government.

On the other hand, in addition to the RNR, legislations designated for natural resource management also contain provisions that regulate the management and exploitation of PAs. For example, the Forest Law (Article 55 of the Forest Law: “The harvesting of forests, forest trees shall comply with the following provisions: (c) nature reserves of forest trees, the harvesting is prohibited. However, the prevention and control of forestry pests, forest fire prevention, maintenance of the main protection of the living environment, natural disasters and other special circumstances must be harvested and the experimental area of bamboo forest.”), the Grassland Law, the Regulations on the Protection of Wild Plants, the Regulations on the Protection of Aquatic Resources, and the Regulations on the Administration of Scenic and Historic Areas all contain certain provisions related to PAs (relevant departmental regulations in addition to these regulations: Measures for the Management of Marine Nature Reserves (State Oceanic Administration, 1995), Regulations for the Protection of Geological Remains (Ministry of Geology and Minerals, 1994), Measures for the Management of Aquatic Nature Reserves (Ministry of Agriculture, 1997), Measures for the Management of Land in Nature Reserves (State Land Administration, State Environmental Protection Administration, 1995), etc.); non-regulatory policies issued at this stage, such as the China Wetland Conservation Action Plan, the China Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan, and the National Wildlife Protection and NR Construction Project Plan also provide a guiding basis for PAs. These laws were enacted under the influence of the departments regulating relevant natural resources, and the purpose of the provisions related to PAs was more to facilitate the management of a specific resource exploitation industry than to consider biodiversity conservation [40]. In terms of the planning and management of PAs, unlike Europe, which has well-developed environmental and land management systems to control land use, with a comprehensive administrative permit system and protection plans for each PA, China’s EIA system and zoning system were established relatively recently (the Environmental Impact Assessment Law was first passed in 2002). Therefore, the RNR and initial stage of ECR legislation have not effectively improved the conditions of human pressure control in PAs [65].

5. Socioecological Coordinated Sustainable Development Promoted by Spatial Planning: 2019–Present

The shortcomings in the formulation and implementation of the NRs and ECR have prompted decision makers to develop a reform to effectively implement the rules controlling human pressure in protected ecological spaces by integrating various types of PAs and properly addressing the relationship between ecological space and other spaces. This reform is comprehensive under the “Ecological Civilization System Reform”, which has adjusted several agencies’ competencies and introduced strategic plans, reflecting the central government’s emphasis on improving ecosystem services, protecting biodiversity, and guaranteeing national ecological security. The reform mainly includes the “Reform on National Territorial Spatial Planning (NTSP)”, which integrates various kinds of plans previously governed by different agencies, and the “Reform on National Park Management System”, which integrates various types of PAs (Figure 3).

The original ECR concept was retained and has been transformed and integrated into the more comprehensive planning of NTSP, with the main decision-making department of the ECR having transitioned from the MPE to the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR). The reform tends to solve certain problems, including lack of scientific basis for its delineation, failure to take sustainable development into account, neglect of social–ecological interaction, and interest orientation of departments [66]. The NTSP system was piloted in several provinces in 2017 and formally implemented nationwide in 2019, and consists of several policy documents [67,68], which mainly contain the scientific layouts of production space, living space, and ecological space, corresponding to the “three control lines” consisting of ECRs, agricultural farmland redlines, and urban development boundaries. On this basis, a “three-zones and three-lines” pattern of spatial use of the national territory was formed, providing the ground for unified spatial use control. Unlike the ecological importance, sensitivity, and vulnerability evaluation adopted in the technology guidelines of the original ECR [47], the NTSP adopts the “evaluation of resources and environment carrying capacity and the suitability of space development”, which integrates the best use of specific spaces and realizes that the three lines do not cross or overlap or conflict. China has carried out a major institutional reform of the State Council, reorganized the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) and established the MNR. The MNR is the authority in charge of the formation of the NTSP and the implementation of space use control, which has changed the previous situation of overlapping planning and enforcement by multiple authorities, and is conducive to controlling the development and utilization of ecological space from the perspective of land development. After the implementation of the reform, the ecological space delineated under the original ECR was adjusted, and some areas of low ecological value that were already utilized by agricultural and urban activities were moved out of the redline. A study from Jiangsu Province shows that the main improvements resulting from the redline adjustment include the following: (1) Fragmented habitat components are gradually merged through the ECR adjustment to form a more stable network structure. (2) The number of adjusted high-value connectivity regions of source ER increases, and ER adjustment reduces the resistance of high-intensity human-made disturbances and improves the connectivity between ECRs [69].

The delineation of ecological space in the NTSP is not building a castle in the air; its core foundation remains the PA system, to which the recent reform has responded. China has always set the development of a scientific NR system as the goal of reform, and before the introduction of the RNR in 1994, China’s NR had a decades-long history of development, but the chaos caused by the overlapping of different types of PAs, mixed classifications, and unclear rights and responsibilities of agencies gave rise to the demand for integrating existing types of PAs. In order to solve this problem, in June 2019, the CPC central committee and the State Council issued The Guiding Opinions on Establishing a Nature Reserve System with National Parks as the Mainstay, which proposed the construction of national parks and reclassified the original types of PAs in China. The main position of national parks in the construction of nature reserves is clearly defined, and the requirement of building a scientific and reasonable nature reserve system through the scientific delineation, integration, and optimization of nature reserves is also proposed [70]. The Guiding Opinions clarify the formation of a nature reserve management system with national parks as the main body, nature reserves as the basis, and various types of nature parks as a supplement; these three types of PAs are in decreasing order of ecological importance and stringency of control. The authority in charge of nature reserves is gradually being adjusted to the State Forestry and Grassland Administration (FGA) to reduce inconsistencies and difficulties caused by the dual-management system that previously existed.

After the reform, China’s regulatory system for the management of ecological spaces will be more scientific (Figure 3), and the NTSP will follow the “suitability of space development assessment” that emphasizes the sustainable use of territorial space [71] and determines the use of a land unit based on whether and to what extent it is suitable for a certain use [72]. The ecological space in the NTSP will not only include the national parks and nature reserves established after the reform but will also include “areas of great ecological importance and ecologically sensitive areas” (mainly covering the following: habitats with very small species distribution, national public welfare forests, important wetlands and coastal wetlands, key soil erosion prevention areas, sandy land closure protection areas, concentrated distributions of wild plants, natural shorelines, snowy mountain glaciers, plateau tundra, and other important ecological protection areas) [73]. After the above two types of areas are overlaid and verified, it is ensured that the delineation covers the national and provincial development-prohibited areas. In terms of the legal system, The Guiding Opinions require that by 2025, the laws and regulations, management, and supervision system of the new nature reserve system will be improved. Currently, China is already developing the Law on National Parks and the Law on Nature Reserves, and scholars have discussed how to integrate the legislation related to PAs into a future environmental code. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), reorganized from the MEP, which is currently implementing regulations to limit human pressure in ecological spaces (

Table 4. Regulations for monitoring the implementation of ECR under NTSP.

MEP and NDRC, 2017. Guidelines for the Delineation of Ecological Protection Conservation Redlines.	Definition	ECR refers to the areas with special important ecological functions within the ecological space and must be compulsorily and strictly protected....... usually includes important areas with ecological functions such as water connotation, biodiversity maintenance, soil and water conservation, wind and sand control, coastal ecological stability, and other functions, as well as sensitive and fragile areas of ecological environment such as soil erosion, land sanding, rock desertification, and salinization.
	Requirements of Delineation	Focus on wholeness: take into account the natural ecological integrity and systemic nature, combine the natural boundaries of mountains, rivers, geomorphological units, vegetation, and the connectivity of ecological corridors, reasonably delineate the ecological protection conservation redline, delineate as much as possible, and avoid habitat fragmentation. Spatial coordination: coordination with various types of planning and the other two boundaries The process of delineating ECR: extremely important areas for ecological functions and extremely sensitive areas for the ecological environment are superimposed and merged, and ensure that the delineation covers national and provincial prohibited development areas, as well as other areas where protection is necessary.
MEE, 2022. Ecological Protection Conservation Redline Supervision Measures (for Pilot Implementation) (Draft for Comments), 2022.	Rules within the Redline	Within the ecological protection conservation redline, anthropogenic activities are in principle prohibited in the core PAs of nature reserves, and developmental and productive construction activities are strictly prohibited in other areas. Subject to existing laws and regulations, only limited anthropogenic activities that do not cause damage to ecological functions are allowed, except for major national strategic projects.
	Development Monitoring	The Ministry of Ecology and Environment organizes remote sensing monitoring of anthropogenic activities with full coverage of the ecological protection conservation redline, focusing on mineral resources development, industrial development, energy development, tourism development, transportation development, and other anthropogenic activities that may cause ecological damage. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment builds a national ecological protection conservation redline supervision platform, forming a database for ecological protection conservation redline supervision and a “one map” for ecological protection conservation redline supervision.
	Implementation of the Redline and Political Responsibility	The Ministry of Ecology and Environment will protect the effectiveness of the ECR into the in-depth fight against pollution and the effectiveness of the battle assessment, as the important reference of party and government leadership and leading cadres comprehensive evaluation and accountability, outgoing audits, rewards, and punishments for appointment and removal, as well as the relevant areas to carry out ecological compensation.

), undertook law enforcement and supervision of ecological spaces in accordance with the requirement of the “separation of natural resource owners and regulators”.

6. Discussion and Policy Implications

It has been clearly displayed that there is a strong negative relationship between human pressure and biodiversity conservation [74,75,76], and the importance of legal and policy frameworks to manage anthropogenic pressures has been highlighted [77]. It is unlikely that countries will be able to conserve biodiversity successfully, and achieve their sustainability goals, without first addressing the levels of human pressure within their PAs [76]. This paper analyzes three stages in the development of regulations controlling human activities in governing PAs in China, highlighting that the third-stage reform since 2019 has placed the planning and management of PAs in China under the comprehensive system of the NTSP.

The transnational insights that Chinese practice can provide are that placing ecological space, agricultural space, and urban development space under a unified planning framework can effectively deal with the competition between different functional areas, safeguard important ecological functional areas from erosion by agricultural and urban development, protect the integrity of various types of nature reserves, and reduce disturbance caused by human activities. In terms of concrete means of implementation, China restricts human activities and land development in PAs through the ECR, an administrative law tool, and human development and construction activities are subject to strict administrative approval.

However, there are still shortcomings in China’s NTSP and national park reforms since 2019; the current reforms are policy-driven and have not yet formed a fixed legal order. During the reform process, the authority of the central government can drive significant changes in the interest pattern; however, when the reform results are mature, an institutional and policy framework should be established in the form of laws. This section provides some suggestions for improvement, taking into account these shortcomings.

6.1. Introduce Formal Conservation Legislation

First, it is necessary to sort out the current policies that have been introduced. The reform of the “ecological civilization” system is a process of exploration, and the various types of reforms and innovations represented by the ECR system consist of many policy documents in the process of development, and there are many conflicts among them successively and among each other, especially exacerbated by the departmental reform in 2018. The systematic sorting of previous policies can lay the foundation needed for legislation. The second element of lawmaking involves the formulation of a Law on National Parks and a Law on Nature Reserves, which should provide for policy objectives, basic rights and obligations, basic principles and major measures, environmental management systems, administrative organizational structures, and applicable relationships with related laws, especially regarding planning systems, classification and grading controls, and regulations on licensing, restrictions, and prohibitions that grant the government clear and bounded powers [70]. Finally, as China is exploring the development of an environmental code, the legislation should also leave room for convergence with the environmental code, and properly address the relationship between conservation laws and other natural resources laws [78].

6.2. Specify the Adjustment Procedure for the ECR

The NTSP is a comprehensive plan, of which the three zones and three lines, including the ECR, are the core components. It also includes special plans implemented in specific regions (watersheds) and specific areas, such as protected area plans. Previously, China was plagued by frequent changes in plans and the will of leadership could easily override them. According to the current policy, provincial TSPs are submitted to the State Council for approval after being approved by the Standing Committee of the Provincial People’s Congress, in order to improve their scientific validity, legal effectiveness, and implementation authority. The current policy stipulates that “if it is necessary to amend the plan due to major national strategic adjustment, major project construction or administrative division adjustment, etc., the plan must first be approved by the same authority before it can be amended in accordance with the statutory procedures...... in order to prevent the situation that plans change with the shift of party committee and government”. Since the full implementation of the NTSP in 2019, by May 2022, most provinces had published their provincial TSPs, which means that the NTSP has progressed from the formulation stage to the implementation stage; therefore, a certain degree of modification during the implementation process is potentially required. This change leads to the demand for legalizing the adjustment procedure of the NTSP, especially the adjustment of the validity period, the circumstances under which the adjustment is allowed, and the authority that has the right to approve the adjustment. In view of the current situation of economic development in China, which is at the stage of high-speed urbanization and highly dependent on land development, it is necessary to clarify the rules for transforming land inside ecological space for other uses, as well as the rules for changing ecological space into agricultural and urban space, in future lawmaking.

6.3. Legal Adaptation to Climate Change

The growing threats to biodiversity from climate change call for a far more wide-ranging approach to conservation. Climate warming may lead to the migration of sensitive flora and fauna out of protected boundaries and fragmentation of protected habitats [79]. The NTSP and the nature reserve system, which integrates ecological as well as agricultural and productive spaces in one comprehensive plan that includes rigorous monitoring measures and considers the best use of each type of space, provides a worthwhile framework for biodiversity conservation. The principle of “integration” was emphasized in the formulation of the NTSP, which requires that the natural ecological integrity and systems of nature be taken into account. More specifically, the ECR should be drawn reasonably to avoid habitat fragmentation according to the natural boundaries of mountains, rivers, geomorphologic units, vegetation, and connectivity across PA networks. However, this is not enough; the habitats of a wide range of species might change through the impact of climate change, and adaptive biodiversity conservation must also concern itself with the conservation of ecosystems and ecosystem services across the landscape, including in agricultural and other human-dominated landscapes [3]. Therefore, the law should enhance adaptations to climate change, strengthen the monitoring of vulnerable species and ecosystems, and moderate broadening of the focus of conservation frameworks [80].

6.4. Perfecting the Hierarchical Management System in the Ecological Space of NTSP

The guidelines of the NTSP and national park systems both require a two-level management system within the ECR, dividing the ECR into two areas, including the primary control area, where human pressure is mainly prohibited, and the secondary control area, which is mainly restricted. In the current reform process of the nature reserve system, the MEE is converging the core zone and buffer zone in the original NR into the primary control area in the new system, which is not scientific [81]. For the primary control zone of the ecological space, a positive list control strategy can be implemented, and the types of activities allowed are proposed in a classified manner. In the secondary control area, a negative list control strategy can be implemented; except for the listed activities, all other activities can take place in the secondary control area without reducing the regional ecosystem service functions or ecological security [51]. The two-level management system and its subsidiary list should be included in the law or administrative regulations.

6.5. Emphasis on the Construction and Management of Marine ECR

From the requirements of the EPL and NTSP policies, the ECR and spatial planning implemented in China should cover all kinds of national territorial space, including the ocean. However, since China is traditionally a land-based country and the administrative supervision and management of the ocean is highly specialized, the main body of marine ECR delineation is the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), and the delineation and supervision of marine EPR are relatively independent. In the government structure of China, the SOA is namely a national bureau under the MNR with a de facto independent status, having its own institutional, budgetary, and law enforcement credentials. Marine regulations objectively require professional supervision, so the link that should be strengthened is the delineation of marine ECR. Scientific delineation of marine ECR boundaries and effective implementation of use controls will not only protect marine biodiversity but also improve China’s compliance with international treaties such as the CBD [33].

7. Conclusions

For conservation management under severe global challenges, this paper can shed some light on how to build a policy and legal framework for effective conservation under the pressures of intense human activity and economic development. The CBD aims at ensuring 30% of the Earth’s surface is under effective protection by 2030. In the face of such an arduous task, innovations in legal systems are indispensable. The development of the conservation law of China shows that, especially in areas with rapid economic growth, it is difficult to achieve the desired effect by relying solely on strict legal rules to reduce the impact of human pressure in PAs. The effective implementation of laws needs to be rooted in the factual context specific to each country, and in the case of China, the protected boundaries of ecological space should be reasonably delimited, and proper handling of the demands for land between ecological space and agricultural and urban use is the premise of effective protection. Innovations in China’s protected area management since 2018 have addressed previous legal and institutional fragmentation. These innovations provide the experience of integrating the planning of nature reserves into a unified NTSP system, with a single restructured government agency responsible for the formulation of spatial planning and the implementation of use control. Naturally, there are still many problems with China’s nature reserve reform that should be solved, such as the need to establish related laws that include territorial and spatial planning and nature reserve protection, to clarify the legal procedures and basis for ECR adjustment, and to consider the impact of climate change on biodiversity and the relationship between protected land areas and marine protected areas.