What are the difficulties in the system construction of national parks?

Su Yang, Ph.D. in Environmental Science. Researcher of the State Council Development Research Center, deputy editor-in-chief of Managing the World magazine, and member of the National Park System Construction Evaluation Expert Group of the National Development and Reform Commission. The research direction focuses on the comprehensive fields such as protected areas, environment and health. The subjects he presided over included Research on Environment and Health Management System and Mechanism, Rural Environmental Protection Policy, National Park Management System, Resources and Environment Strategy Related to Main Function Zoning, National Science and Technology Support Plan and Adaptive Management Technology of Nature Reserve, etc.

What are the difficulties in the pilot project of national park system?

Facing two constraints of land and people and two difficulties of system reform: money and power.

China Environmental News: What changes will the national park system pilot bring? What reform difficulties may be encountered?

Su Yang: National parks in China will face two prominent constraints: land and people. That is, most land rights do not belong to the government, and there are a large number of aborigines in it. Correspondingly, it brings two difficulties in system construction: money and power. In other words, where is the source of funds for heritage sites to fully reflect the priority of protection and public welfare? How to solve the related land ownership problems? How to divide responsibilities and rights in management?

The two major constraints of land and people and the two major difficulties of system reform, such as money and power, make the specific system reform plan need to consider more basic systems, such as the property right system of natural resources, the forerunner of reform and the feasibility of national park system reform, the financial difficulties and vested interest structure of local governments in promoting reform, and the comprehensive consideration of the jurisdiction of heritage sites, the division of responsibilities and departmental interests of relevant departments when participating in reform.

China Environmental News: You mentioned that the country has identified nine national park pilot units. How to carry out the pilot work of the national park system?

Su Yang: In the relevant documents, it is clear that the experimental area of the system was established, not a park. This has two meanings: first, the nine pilot areas in China can innovate these systems and mechanisms according to local conditions, as long as they conform to the three reform directions of unity, standardization and efficiency; Second, the experimental area is not necessarily the future national park, and the presentation form of relevant institutional mechanisms of future national parks is not necessarily the same as that of the experimental area. In this way, on the one hand, we can open the experimental area and carry out phased innovation in the established reform direction; On the other hand, it also reduces the utility of the pilot process and avoids the relevant local governments and departments from focusing on competing for brands and seats.

At present, the system construction schemes of nine pilot provinces have all completed the preliminary evaluation in the province. After the provinces reported the plans to the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Development and Reform Commission organized experts to review the plans in the pilot areas. At present, three national park system pilot areas, namely Sanjiangyuan in Qinghai, Shennongjia in Hubei and Hua Kai in Zhejiang, have passed the national assessment. Among them, the pilot scheme of Sanjiangyuan National Park System was directly adopted by the 19th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensive Deepening Reform, and became the earliest approved national park system pilot area in China.

China Environmental News: What do you think are the main difficulties that the national park system may encounter in the pilot process?

Su Yang: The difficulty of system reform focuses on the system related to money and power. In the case that the central government has no special funds for the time being, the reform led by provincial local governments directly reflects the public welfare. Local governments are not only careless, but also powerless. This is the direct reason why many provinces are not enthusiastic about participating after the release of the central pilot document.

In the absence of special funds from the central government, it is difficult to make major adjustments to the resource property rights system, and the support of local governments at all levels is obviously the basis for reform. If public welfare is emphasized at the beginning of the reform, and the important financial resources of local governments-scenic spot tickets are not involved for the time being, local governments will have the enthusiasm to participate and make greater institutional breakthroughs in unified management. Therefore, the institutional mechanism in the pilot document emphasizes the phased reform plan and chooses the reform focus. This principle can be summarized as: while maintaining the pattern of vested interests, selectively adjust the institutional mechanisms.

The pilot implementation plan and the overall plan have clear provisions on the institutional mechanisms involved, including the management unit system and financial mechanism. However, many institutional reforms are linked, especially the financial mechanism. Especially when it comes to the division of powers, what kind of management responsibilities and capital contribution obligations should the central and local governments bear respectively, which requires a clearer and more detailed analysis. In my opinion, it is appropriate for the government to directly undertake the affairs with strong public welfare and easy to form incompatible incentives, while the market can only intervene in catering, accommodation, transportation and other contents that are not basic public services, but it must adopt the franchise mode and cannot package all these services to one enterprise as a whole. However, the enthusiasm of local governments in this aspect of reform is not high, because the reform in this aspect will inevitably adjust the operating mechanism simultaneously, touch the current vested interest groups, and need to change the interest pattern of local stakeholders.

Therefore, the adjustment of relevant systems needs the innovation of technical route, which can be explained by easement. China may be selected as a national park heritage site, and even in the core protected area, it is not a no-man's land. It is neither scientific nor feasible to prohibit people from entering the core area in the Regulations on Nature Reserves. You can specify the protection requirements. For a considerable number of species and ecosystems, there is no need for a large area where any human activities are strictly prohibited, and some have even formed an approximate "* * *" relationship with the production and life of indigenous people. Strictly prohibiting human activities will undermine the protection effect.

For example, if traditional agricultural production is banned, crested ibis, which relies on artificial rice farming system, may become extinct. In this way, the protection of this area only needs to limit the rights of indigenous people to meet the protection needs, without changing the land ownership, which is the scientific basis of easement. Although the scope, mode, intensity and time of land use have to be restricted for the purpose of protection, such as the abuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agricultural production and the random adjustment of planting structure, this local restriction is far lower than the cost of land redemption and overall migration, and in some cases it is more reasonable than closed management. This local land use restriction can be called protection easement.

The so-called protective easement can be expressed as the right to use others' real estate according to the contract without reference to protection, in order to improve the efficiency of using their own real estate. The supporting system of easement mainly includes two aspects: one is the evaluation of easement and the intermediary system, that is, the special government agency evaluates easement and matches the transaction between the serviceman and the serviceman; The second is the matching fund system of easement, that is, providing funds to enable easement holders to obtain compensation funds or preferential measures corresponding to their restricted rights. Compensation funds can be used to compensate the output damaged by use restrictions, and can also be used to compensate the labor costs paid by local governments, indigenous people and protection institutions; Preferential measures include relevant tax incentives or preferential supply of other production resources.