Unified management

In 2013, the central government put forward the creation of a national park system with the aim of establishing a series of facilities and building a unified management system by this year.

Two years later, construction was approved for 10 pilot national parks covering more than 220,000 sq km, about 2.2 percent of the country's territory, to further explore unified management of all facilities. In the parks, the strongest protection occurs within "red line" zones, a key government strategy that places designated areas under mandatory State protection.

A report delivered at the opening of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017 said a nature reserves system would be developed as part of efforts to build "a beautiful China".

Last year, the State Council, China's Cabinet, unveiled a guideline on nature reserves, with national parks as a major component. The reserves are intended to provide systemic protection of natural ecosystems, cultural relics within each region, scenery and biodiversity, and also safeguard the country's environmental security.

"China's national parks will be different from those in Western countries because we will prioritize protection of ecosystems rather than the utilization of natural resources," said Tang Xiaoping, deputy director of the National Parks Management Office at the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

He noted that in Russia, for example, nature reserves play a protective role, while national parks emphasize the interaction between nature and human beings. In the United States, where national parks have a history of 100-plus years, commercial considerations are a crucial part of the setup.

"The primary purpose of establishing nature reserves is to protect fragile ecosystems, which have been under constant attack from human activities," he said. "So we will limit human activities in the national parks and minimize their influence on ecosystems."