land Review Moving toward a Greener China: Is China’s National Park Pilot Program a Solution? Gonghan Sheng 1, Heyuan Chen 1 , Kalifi Ferretti-Gallon 1 , John L. Innes 1 , Zhongjun Wang 1,2, Yujun Zhang 2 and Guangyu Wang 1,* 1 National Park Research Centre, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T1Z4, Canada;
[email protected] (G.S.);
[email protected] (H.C.); kalifi
[email protected] (K.F.-G.);
[email protected] (J.L.I.);
[email protected] (Z.W.) 2 National Park Research Lab, School of Landscape Architecture, Beijing Forestry University, 35 Qinghua E Rd, Beijing 100091, China;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +1-604-822-2681 Received: 29 October 2020; Accepted: 30 November 2020; Published: 2 December 2020 Abstract: National parks have been adopted for over a century to enhance the protection of valued natural landscapes in countries worldwide. For decades, China has emphasized the importance of economic growth over ecological health to the detriment of its protected areas. After decades of environmental degradation, dramatic loss of biodiversity, and increasing pressure from the public to improve and protect natural landscapes, China’s central government recently proposed the establishment of a pilot national park system to address these issues. This study provides an overview of the development of selected conventional protected areas (CPAs) and the ten newly established pilot national parks (PNPs). A literature review was conducted to synthesize the significant findings from previous studies, and group workshops were conducted to integrate expert knowledge.