Protected Areas (PAs) are leading in promoting ecological protection and sustainable development. National Park in China is the “main body” of PAs. Five national parks including Sanjiangyuan (SNP) have been established in 2021. However, most of China's National Parks are in impoverished areas, where the contradiction between ecological protection and economic development is highly prominent. 

In a study published in Journal of Environmental Management, researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) tried to seek how to achieve sustainable park management, by integrating ecosystem services (ESs) into National Park delimitation to coordinate ecological restoration and economic development. 

As Sanjiangyuan national Park (SNP) is more representative of natural ecology and typical of the contradiction between ecology and economy compared to other National Parks in China, the researchers selected SNP as the study region. 

The researchers developed a framework, based on the InVEST model and combined with spatial statistical methods, for integrating ESs into National Park delimitation to coordinate ecological restoration and economic development. They evaluated the efficacy of delimitation of SNP for protecting ESs.  

The results indicated that the current SNP boundary exhibited insufficient coverage of the high-ES area. The core conservation area showed the most prominent contradiction between ecological conservation and economic development. It has the most significant area among the three functional areas but has the lowest potential to develop the ES trade, resulting in an increased financial burden on the government. 

“Considering the unique function of core conservation areas for biodiversity conservation, emphasis should be on enhancing ESs in traditionally areas used for further development of carbon emissions trading and water rights trading, thereby supplementing ecological conservation investments in core conservation areas,” said BAI Yang of XTBG. 

“Sanjiangyuan National Park can obtain financial support for ecological restoration by promoting ES trading with downstream areas,” added BAI Yang. 

Contact 

BAI Yang Ph.D Principal Investigator  

Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China               

E-mail: baiyang@xtbg.ac.cn