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elsewhere; where this understanding in- *Correspondence: We discuss institutional reforms to [email protected] (A.G. Rossberg). fi ’ forms identi cation of management ob- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2019.06.004 China s protected area manage- jectives and construction of problem- ment. Currently (as elsewhere), © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. specific management models; where protected areas suffer fragmented these models are calibrated – wherever References management, lack of a compre- they are needed – using cutting-edge 1. Marquet, P.A. et al. (2014) On theory in ecology. BioSci- fi – hensive classi cation, inadequate methods of data collection and statistical ence 64, 701 710 2. Keddy, P. (2005) Putting the plants back into plant ecol- coverage of biodiversity and eco- inference; where society has confidence ogy: six pragmatic models for understanding and conserv- – system services, and divided, in what ecology predicts; and where ing plant diversity. Ann. Bot. 96, 177 189 3. Ferrier, S. et al. (2016) The Methodological Assessment Re- inconsistent legislation. We recom- curiosity-driven empirical and theoretical port on Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity and research discovers ever new possibilities Ecosystem Services. Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Sci- mend establishing a new system of ence-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for understanding and managing ecolog- 4. Levin, S.A. (1975) On the care and use of mathematical protected area management that – ical systems. models. Am. Nat. 109, 785 786 can address past difficulties by 5. Łomnicki, A. (1988) The place of modelling in ecology. Oikos 52, 139–142 using ongoing institutional reforms Ecological research will always form a 6. Caswell, H. (1988) Theory and models in ecology: a differ- ent perspective. Ecol. Model. 43, 33–44 as unprecedented opportunities. spectrum from purely empirical work 7. Scheiner, S.M. and Willig, M.R. (2008) A general theory of – through data-driven modelling to theoreti- ecology. Theor. Ecol. 1, 21 28 8. Fawcett, T.W. and Higginson, A.D. (2012) Heavy use of cal analysis of fundamental principles [1, equations impedes communication among biologists. Protected Areas in China – 2,5,9]. It is essential however that all par- Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 109, 11735 11739 Establishing protected areas is the major 9. Evans, M.R. et al. (2013) Predictive systems ecology. ticipants have a basic understanding and Proc. Biol. Sci. 280, 20131452 strategy for conserving biodiversity a joint sense of ownership of the entire 10. Kendall, B.E. (2015) Some directions in ecological theory. worldwide [1]. Global aspirations such Ecology 96, 3117–3125 spectrum [5,20]. Only then can knowledge 11. Courchamp, F. et al. (2015) Fundamental ecology is as the United Nation’s Sustainable and understanding flow effectively in both fundamental. Trends Ecol. Evol. 30, 9–16 Development Goals 14 and 15 (https:// 12. Edwards, A.M. and Auger-Méthé, M. (2019) Some directions, bringing to full fruition the unity guidance on using mathematical notation in ecology. sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs) – and utility of our science. Methods Ecol. Evol. 10, 92 99 emphasise their importance and ines- 13. Chiel, H.J. et al. (2010) From biology to mathematical models and back: teaching modeling to biology students, and biol- capable connections. The International ogy to math and engineering students. LSE 9, 248–265 Convention of Biological Diversity’s 14. Hastings, A. and Gross, L., eds (2012) In Encyclopedia of Acknowledgments Theoretical Ecology, University of California Press Aichis targets (https://www.cbd.int/sp/ 15. MacArthur, R. and Levins, R. (1967) The limiting similarity, G.B. acknowledges funding by the Swedish Research targets/) specify quantitative targets for convergence, and divergence of coexisting species. Am. Council (grant VR 2017-05245), G.M. by the Hungarian Nat. 101, 377–385 areas protected (target 11), stopping National Research, Development and Innovation Office 16. Simberloff, D. (1982) The status of competition theory in – the loss of natural habitats (target 5), (grant K123796). ecology. Ann. Zool. Fenn. 19, 241 253 17. Barabás, G. et al. (2012) Continuous coexistence or and species extinction (target 12), while discrete species? A new review of an old question. Evol. underscoring the vital services natural Ecol. Res. 14, 523–554 18. Milner-Gulland, E.J. and Shea, K. (2017) Embracing uncer- ecosystems provide (target 14). tainty in applied ecology. J. Appl. Ecol. 54, 2063–2068 1School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary 19. Page, K.M. and Nowak, M.A. (2002) Unifying evolutionary University of London, London, UK dynamics. J. Theor. Biol. 219, 93–98 China has exceptional biodiversity: its eco- 2Division of Theoretical Biology, Dept. IFM, Linköping University, 20. Pásztor, L. et al. (2016) Theory-based ecology: a systems range from permanent ice fields Linköping, Sweden, Darwinian approach, Oxford University Press 3ELTE-MTA Theoretical Biology and Evolutionary Ecology to tropical moist forests [2],anditholds Research Group, Budapest, Hungary 15% of the world’s vertebrate and 12% 4The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, VA, 22203, USA 5The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Australia of its plant species [3] in about 6% of the 6Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Earth’s land surface. As with other coun- Chicago, IL, 60637 USA Science & Society 7Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, 87501, USA tries [4], it encounters major obstacles to 8Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, conserving this biodiversity, limiting its Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile 9Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Mathematical Transforming Protected ability to meet international commitments. Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa China’s experiences in protected area 10African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Muizenberg, Area Management in China South Africa management have important implications 11School of Biological Sciences, Kadoorie Biological Sciences Weihua Xu,1 Stuart L. Pimm,2,*,@ for the rest of the world, particularly given Building, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong 1,3 4 1 Kong, China Ao Du, Yang Su, Xinyue Fan, the upcoming 15th Conference of Parties 12Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Loránd University, 5 6 (COP 15) to the Convention on Biological Budapest, Hungary Li An, Jianguo Liu, and 1, 13International Initiative for Theoretical Ecology, http://iite.info Zhiyun Ouyang * Diversity in China in 2020.

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Problems in Managing China’s International Union for Conservation Challenges in accountability arise if Protected Areas of Nature (https://www.iucn.org/theme/ players are also judges. What depart- By 2017, China had established 2750 protected-areas/about/protected-area- ments should be accountable for what is- ’ nature reserves (the strictest type of categories). sues? How should a protected area s protected area) covering 1.47 million km2. management performance be moni- Since the establishment of the first reserve Second, the quantity and spatial allocation tored? Who is to be blamed or rewarded? in 1956, the total area increased rapidly, of protected areas fall short of meeting the One example is the Sanjiangbingliu areas especially between 1990 and 2000. needs of biodiversity conservation and the in Yunnan Province, where several types As with the total global area [1,5],it provisioning of ecosystem services [7,8]. of protected areas overlap substantially, has plateaued or even decreased slightly Each department has its own agenda. and regulations contradict, offset, and since then. Since 2000, China has Even when applied to the category of even cancel one another (Box 1). also established numerous other types nature reserves, no overall plan meets of protected areas. These have multiple national conservation targets. Besides, Opportunities from Institutional goals for ecosystems, landscapes, natural many nature reserves were established Reforms resources, relics, and others, yet their ‘bottom-up’, in places that suffered serious China’s government is now implementing combined area is small. In total, China has threats or where local governments were institutional reforms. Some closely relate over 12 000 protected areas, covering strongly motivated to do so. For instance, to ecological protection. Four reforms are 20% of its land surface [6] (see Figure S1 local governments prefer protected areas critical for highly efficient and standardised in the supplemental information online). that attract tourists (e.g., forest parks and management of protected areas. wetland parks) over strictly regimented The central problem has been the nature reserves. Without comprehensive Restructuring Government Agencies fragmented management of these different planning, the current protected area sys- The number of ministries or branches of the protected areas. One or more departments tem does not match key areas for biodiver- State Council has decreased by 15 from 79 or agencies within the corresponding dis- sity and ecosystem services. The largest since March 2018, as some departments trict or county government (Table S1 in the protected areas are in western China, were merged or subordinated to an upper supplemental information online) manages especially in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. authority (http://sg.weibo.com/user/rmrb/ each protected area. According to their Many of the key areas for biodiversity and 4217176971870338). Upon completing designated responsibilities, these entities ecosystem services (such as water reten- these nationally, the reforms will be applied set goals and corresponding management tion) are in eastern or southern China and locally. Some reforms closely related to rules for protected areas under their juris- are seriously underrepresented [8]. ecological protection will benefit China’s diction. Three other major problems arose re-establishment of a uniform, normative, from this. Conversely, this fragmented management and efficient system for protected area ‘overprotects’ some areas. Several ad- management. This change should address First, there is no comprehensive classifica- ministrative bodies may have overlapping the central problem of fragmented manage- tion of protected areas. Different depart- management responsibilities, as they do ment. Fewer government agencies, with ments created categories, including scenic elsewhere [9], putting different administra- better aligned goals and responsibilities, spots, forest parks, and water parks, from tions into potential conflict. Protected should reduce functional overlap or conflict. their own, varying goals (see online supple- areas in Hainan and Sichuan provide ex- mental materials Table S1). The disjointed amples (Box 1). Ownership Shift protected area categories may have similar The ownership of all state-owned natural functions, especially those generating direct Third, the lack of effective legal mecha- resources and assets in China transferred economic returns, such as tourism or recre- nism determines the roles, benefits, and from multiple departments to one ministry: ation, yet overlook vital ecological functions authority of multiple stakeholders in the newly established Ministry of Natural (e.g., biodiversity or ecosystem services). protected areas. Under the current Resources. This ministry has the authority Thus, the protected area categories cannot mechanisms, regulations and policies to consider both development and conser- meet national requirements, for example, (e.g., goals and rules) are incomplete, vation goals simultaneously when estab- ones to achieve the Aichi targets. Further- disjointed, lack coordination, or even lishing national land planning, including more, they have no clear correspondence conflict. They are thus less effective protected area plans. This ownership shift and so cannot readily be aligned to interna- in accomplishing relevant national should help solve problems relating to spa- tional schemes, especially those of the goals and international commitments. tial overlapping, lack of coordination, and

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Box 1. Management Problems instance, in September 2018, the Overlapping Management in Hainan and Sichuan Provinces new Ministry of Ecology and Environ- ment responded quickly to misman- Among 118 terrestrial and coastal protected areas categorised into six types in Hainan Province, at least 50 (16.6% of the total protected area amount) experience administration overlap. Nature reserves, forest parks, and scenic agement (e.g., logging, mining, real spots show the largest extent of administrative overlap (see Figure S2 in the supplemental information online). estate development) in seven protected areas that conserve endan- Since 1978, the State Forestry Administration has managed the famous Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan Province as a gered species, including Chinese alli- national nature reserve for giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). Since 1982, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has also managed it as a national scenic spot. It became a national geopark in gators (Alligator sinensis), Manchurian 2004 for the conservation of its geological landscape and was entrusted to the Ministry of Land Resources. tigers (Panthera tigris altaica), and Thus, it had three names and three different government departments manage it. In practice, it had the same Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). administration and staff, but the different responsibilities may conflict. When conservation clashed with development, the administration easily chose the latter. Tourism brought greater economic benefits but likely The ministry mandated the relevant harmed conservation effectiveness. At least seven pandas were in this reserve in 1988, but only two in 2000 local governments solve serious devel- and three in 2013 based on the national panda surveys. In contrast, the panda population size increased in the opment problems (http://dy.163.com/ surrounding mountain ranges [10]. v2/article/detail/DSN22NTG0530SM99.

Law and Policy Conflicts at Sanjiangbingliu in Yunnan html).

The Sanjiangbingliu (Three Parallel Rivers) region was designated as a national scenic spot in 1989 and a world Although institutional reforms should natural heritage site in 2003. Simultaneously, it is a national nature reserve, geopark, and forest park with large address the problems discussed above, spatially overlapping areas. The ‘Nature Reserve Regulation Rules of the People’s Republic of China’ prohibit development or commercial activities in the buffer and core zones, while the ‘Regulation Rules of Scenic several issues need further attention. We Spots’ allows herding, logging, hunting, and other activities that benefit local villagers economically. Conse- recommend the following: quently, local governments and related administrations allowed land claims and deforestation. They even ap- ’ proved construction of roads that cross the nature reserve s core and buffer-zone areas. These activities, (i) Recategorise all types of protected though giving rise to landslides, soil erosion, and degradation of wildlife habitat, are legal under the scenic spot rules. If ecological degradation continues, it is difficult to punish the accountable parties as the actions that lead areas to meet the conservation re- to soil erosion comply with those rules [11]. quirements of biodiversity and ecosys- tem services to ensure the ecological security of China and neighbouring conflict in management goals or rules, aris- the second problem related to the quantity countries. With institutional reforms, ing from previous multiple administrations. and spatial allocation of protected areas. especially restructuring governmental agencies, a new challenge ensues. Separation of Management from When two agencies merge, how do Establishing a National Park Administration Monitoring and Supervision they deal with the different categories, A new body, the National Park Administra- One adjusted department, the Ministry goals, and rules they bring? When tion under the Ministry of Natural Re- of Ecology and Environment, has been speaking to China’s international com- sources manages forests, wetlands, and released from managing some nature re- mitments, how can it translate its grasslands. Managing protected areas serves and is only charged with monitoring protected area concepts and types that previously reported to a range of de- and supervising the management perfor- into ones that other countries under- partments, it is responsible for ongoing mance for all types of protected areas. stand? China’s protected area types national park reform. It aims to solve the It overseas management performance of all must have a clear relationship to inter- overlapping and fragmented management ecological conservation efforts, including national categories. The central gov- by multiple branches and protect the in- protected area management, indepen- ernment newly proposed the concept tegrity of natural ecosystems. The reforms dently. This reform addresses the problem of three major types (i.e., national will also promote establishing national of inadequate legal mechanisms. When parks, nature reserves, and nature parks as a new type of protected area, players are no longer judges, the monitoring parks).Weproposeamoredetailed covering large areas, such as the Giant and assessment of protected areas status system including national parks, nature Panda National Park [12]. The original and management should be more objective. reserves, germplasm resources re- small protected areas that different de- serves, nature parks, and ecosystem partments managed inside these national Recommendations for Unresolved services reserves [6]. New systematic parks will be repealed once the national Problems protected area categories should con- park is established (Figure 1). This change The reforms mentioned above have sider different conservation objectives, may offer a great opportunity to address led to important changes. For including natural resources, species

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Trends in Ecology & Evolution Figure 1. Protected Area System within the Giant Panda Distribution in Sichuan and Gansu Provinces. After the institutional reform, the original small protected areas (e.g., nature reserves, geoparks, and scenic spots) that different departments managed inside the proposed Giant Panda National Park will be repealed once the National Park is established. Outside the National Park, one type of protected area will be retained, where several overlapped. Data from [6,12].

and ecosystems, the intensity of con- boundaries of various protected area protected areas to less strict ones. servation and development, and the types that comply with our recom- Subsequently, this planning may pro- practicality of management, to enable mendation above. This action should vide a foundation for delineating the more effective conservation. solve problems of where to establish boundaries of all types of protected (ii) Establish comprehensive spatial plan- national parks and other types of areas, since many protected areas ning that considers the nation’s protected areas, and how to identify exist only on paper, and identify gaps diversity of representative species, unique types in protected areas in their quantity and distribution. ecosystems, and natural landscapes. reassignment (Figure 1). China should (iii) Create an integrated legal system It should establish quantities and be cautious in reassigning strictly with regulations for different types

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1 of protected areas. A protected State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Book Review area law proposed several years Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China 2 ago failed mainly due to the dis- Nicholas School of the Environment, Box 90328, Duke The DNA around Us University, Durham, NC 27708, USA agreement amongst the multiple de- 3Center of Architecture Research and Design, University of 1 partments in charge of protected Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100086, China Philip Francis Thomsen * 4Development Research Center of the State Council, Beijing areas. The recent reforms provide a 100010, China 5 new opportunity. This legal system Department of Geography, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA should address the problem of the 6Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department roles, benefits, and authority of multi- of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823-5243, USA ple stakeholders in protected areas. This system should contain an inte- *Correspondence: grated protected area law, regulations [email protected] (S.L. Pimm) and for different types of protected areas, [email protected] (Z. Ouyang). @Twitter: @stuartpimm fi and speci c regulations for each https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2019.05.009 protected area. © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Our recommendations will enhance protected area management, likely better References balancing ecological conservation and 1. Watson, J.E. et al. 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