China News Service, October 12. According to the WeChat public account of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, since my country officially established five national parks in 2021: Sanjiangyuan, Giant Panda, Siberian Tiger and Leopard, Hainan Tropical Rainforest, and Wuyi Mountain, the construction of the first batch of national parks has achieved fruitful results. The national park system with Chinese characteristics has been basically established, the quality of natural ecosystems in key areas continues to improve, and the population of flagship species has grown steadily. The evaluation shows that 75% of the first batch of national parks have excellent ecological benefit assessment indicators, and core ecological service functions such as water source conservation, carbon fixation and oxygen release, and soil and water conservation have been effectively improved.
The first batch of five national parks have a total area of 230,000 square kilometers, integrating and optimizing more than 120 nature reserves of various types at all levels, and bringing representative important ecosystems such as river sources, alpine forests, temperate coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forests, tropical rainforests, and mid-subtropical forests into the scope of protection, so as to achieve large-scale, all-factor, and holistic protection and restoration of important ecological spaces.
Over the past five years, national parks have coordinated and promoted the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grass and sand, and implemented a series of measures such as habitat restoration, ecological corridor connectivity, and management and control of human activities, and the regional ecological foundation has continued to be consolidated. As the "Chinese Water Tower", Sanjiangyuan National Park's water conservation capacity has been significantly enhanced, and an average of 80 billion cubic meters of high-quality water is transported downstream every year. Maduo County, the source of the Yellow River, has recreated the ecological scene of a thousand lakes. The Giant Panda National Park has opened 13 ecological channels for local populations of wild giant pandas, significantly improving habitat connectivity. The Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park has implemented an ecological protection and restoration project of 600,000 acres to unblock cross-border ecological corridors and facilitate the migration and exchange of wild populations. Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park has strengthened strict management and protection of natural forests and implemented rainforest ecological restoration. The original habitat of the rainforest continues to improve. Wuyishan National Park innovatively implements a redemption mechanism for commercial forests in key locations, promotes the protection and restoration of forest ecosystems, and continues to build a strong ecological barrier for mid-subtropical forests.
Over the past five years, historic breakthroughs have been achieved in the protection of flagship species. The Tibetan antelope population in Sanjiangyuan has recovered to more than 70,000. The number of wild Siberian tigers in the Siberian Tiger and Leopard National Park has increased from 27 to 72 when it was first established, and the number of wild Siberian leopards has increased from 42 to 115. A rare image of a wild Siberian tiger with "one tiger and five cubs" was captured. The Hainan gibbon population has expanded to 7 groups of 44 individuals, making it the only gibbon group in the world with a continuously growing population. The Giant Panda National Park protects more than 70% of the country's wild giant pandas. Wuyishan National Park has successively discovered many new species such as the Rain God Horned Toad, Wuyi Wood Rana, and Fujian Gastrodia elata, continuing to enrich the biodiversity background.
Over the past five years, ecological protection and improvement of people's livelihood have been promoted in a coordinated manner. While strictly adhering to ecological protection red lines, national parks use ecological management and protection, ecological compensation, and the development of ecological industries and ecological experiences to create jobs and increase income for the masses nearby. Nearly 50,000 local people are employed as national park ecological rangers, earning an average salary income of 12,000 to 21,000 yuan per person per year. Develop eco-friendly industries according to local conditions and continuously expand channels for increasing community income. Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park was selected as a pilot project for the national ecological product value realization mechanism, with the park’s total ecosystem production value reaching 208.966 billion yuan. Various localities also rely on booming new formats such as nature education and ecological experience, and have received more than 14 million people in the past five years, allowing the general public to truly share the dividends of ecological protection.
Over the past five years, support and guarantees have been continuously strengthened. We will introduce a spatial layout plan for national parks and build the largest national park system in the world. The National Park Law, the first specialized law in the field of natural protected areas, was promulgated and implemented, and the Regulations on Nature Reserves and Scenic Areas Regulations were revised and promulgated. The construction of the natural protected area system with national parks as the main body has entered a new stage of legalization and standardization. Build a mechanism with mainly financial investment and extensive participation of social forces, and basically form a diversified capital investment pattern. The national park sensing system is online and real-time monitoring of key areas is available. Each national park has established an integrated sky-ground monitoring network, comprehensively using satellite remote sensing, drones, infrared cameras, artificial intelligence and other technologies to achieve dynamic monitoring and early warning of ecological changes, wildlife activities, and human disturbances. The Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park has established a world-leading monitoring system. National conservation research centers for giant pandas and gibbons have been established one after another to provide strong scientific research support for the protection of flagship species in national parks. Establish a park integration and multi-department joint patrol and law enforcement mechanism to build a closed-loop supervision system, making national park protection and management more refined, efficient and intelligent.
During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, our country will continue to promote high-quality construction of national parks and establish new national parks in a steady and orderly manner. Strengthen planning guidance and standardize spatial order; scientifically implement major projects for habitat and ecological corridor construction and biodiversity protection, and systematically restore habitats; improve policies such as ecological compensation, wildlife damage compensation, and operational services, and continue to promote the improvement of people's livelihood.
