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The establishment of a new type of natural protected area system with national parks as the main body is an inevitable trend of current development, and it is also an important ways to build a more beautiful China. During tourist visits, the national park will promote a variety of ways to enhance the ecological values of tourists. Ecological values can strengthen tourists' sense of identity, but their impact on tourists' pro-environmental behavior is not discussed. Based on this, Wuyishan National Park, a world natural and cultural heritage, is selected as the case site, and the PLS-SEM analysis method is used. An empirical test was conducted on 358 valid samples collected in the field. The results show the following: (1) tourists' ecological values and place identity can positively affect their pro-environmental behaviors; (2) place identity plays a mediating role between ecological values and tourists' pro-environmental behavior; (3) place dependence and place identity play a chain mediating role between ecological values and tourists' pro-environmental behavior; (4) according to the PLS-MGA test, gender and age can play a moderating role on the influence of ecological values on pro-environmental behavior. Therefore, the managers of national parks should pay attention to the cultivation of ecological values and consider tourist attraction, as well as formulating marketing strategies and other policy suggestions according to the different characteristics of tourists. The findings of this study offer both practical guidance and a theoretical underpinning for advancing ecological tourism within the framework of natural protected areas, with national parks playing a central role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on national park conservation has predominantly concentrated on their internal regions, with scant attention given to the parks and their adjacent areas as integrated entities. Therefore, the investigation of land cover and landscape ecological risks in national parks and surrounding areas is essential for overall ecosystem protection and regional sustainable development. This study examines the spatiotemporal evolution of land cover and its landscape ecological risk in Wuyishan National Park, China, and its surrounding areas (WNPSA) from 1990 to 2020. The results show that (1) the land cover of WNPSA from 1990 to 2020 predominantly exhibited a consistent decline in forested areas, paralleled by an augmentation in farmland and impervious surface areas. The center of standard deviation ellipse of impervious surfaces has been progressively moving further south in tandem with the expansion of these surfaces, primarily located within the county town of Fujian Province. (2) The Wuyishan National Park (WNP) areas were dominated by low values of landscape index, and the high value areas in the park were mainly located at the provincial boundary area, with a gradual narrowing during 1990–2020, suggesting a decrease in landscape heterogeneity within the park. High value areas in the surrounding areas mainly occurred in areas with clustered impervious surfaces (e.g., the county town), where part of them located in Wuyishan City have spread to the edge area southeast of WNP. (3) From 1990 to 2020, the lowest-risk areas continue to expand. However, as the medium-risk zone of the adjacent region extends into the edge of the national park, the low risk zone within the national park exhibits a trend from continuous to separate with the neighboring low risk zone. This led to an escalating stress effect on the ecological security of both the adjacent regions and the national park's boundary areas due to land cover changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is necessary for national parks to exert multiple forms of influence. One innovative function of national parks is leisure and recreation. By optimizing the recreation function, national parks can enhance public participation and tourists' willingness to pay to achieve sustainable development. This paper surveys 435 tourists in Wuyishan National Park with a discrete choice experiment, applies mixed logit models to explore their preferences for recreational attributes from three dimensions and analyzes the heterogeneity. The findings indicate that attributes such as the number of concession activities, transportation variety, the density of recreational facilities, biodiversity, sightseeing zone and combined ticket fee significantly impact tourists' willingness to pay. Higher-educated, younger and willing-to-revisit tourists are more likely to pay for the park and hope to optimize the facilities and activities. The estimated recreational value of the park is RMB 164.51 (about USD 22.75) per person. Here, heterogeneity exist: higher-educated tourists ask for lager sightseeing zone, younger ones prefer more diverse activities and those who are willing to revisit incline to variety means of transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of China's national park system is an important part of the ecological civilization development strategy, and the behavior of the subjects in the national park has a great impact on its sustainable development. Environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) is considered an important aspect of national park management, and the impact of an individual's held value on environmental behavior has received much attention. However, the assigned value (AV) of community residents in national park-specific situations has not been concerned, which is often closely related to resident behavior within national park. Therefore, we took the residents of four gateway communities (Qixi town, Hetian town, Changhong town, and Suzhuang town) in Qianjiangyuan national park (QNP), Zhejiang province as research subjects. Based on the value-belief-norm (VBN) model representing individual values, this study integrates the perceived social value of ecosystem services in the national park among community residents and analyzes their impact on ERB. The collected data were statistically analyzed using SPSS 23.0, and the structural model was validated using SmartPLS based on Partial Least Squares Regression. The research findings revealed that (1) the assigned value has a significant positive influence on the environmentally responsible behavior of community residents; (2) pro-environment personal norms are the strongest predictive variable of environmentally responsible behavior; and (3) biosphere value, altruistic value and personal norms have significant positive influence on the formation of the assigned value of community residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many protected areas worldwide have been established to protect the last natural refuges of flagship animal species. However, long-established protected areas do not always match the current distributions of target species under changing environmental conditions. Here we present a case study of the Asian elephant Elephas maximus in Xishuangbanna, south-west China, to evaluate whether the established protected areas match the species' current distribution and to identify key habitat patches for Asian elephant conservation. Our results show that currently only 24.5% of the predicted Asian elephant distribution in Xishuangbanna is located within Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, which was established for elephant conservation. Based on the predicted Asian elephant distribution, we identified the most important habitat patches for elephant conservation in Xishuangbanna. The three most important patches were outside Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve and together they contained 43.3% of the estimated food resources for Asian elephants in all patches in Xishuangbanna. Thus, we identified a spatial mismatch between immobile protected areas and mobile animals. We recommend the inclusion of the three identified key habitat patches in a new national park currently being planned by the Chinese authorities for the conservation of the Asian elephant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China in recent years has been actively promoting the policy of establishing national parks to preserve nature systems. Visitor center (VC) is one of the most important infrastructures for protection, education, and recreation purposes in national parks. However, the current design of VCs in China is mostly based on the subjective considerations of designers and lacks in-depth discussion on the requirements of visitors. This study employed the Kano Two-Dimensional Quality method to investigate the design requirements of visitors and experts and then applied the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method to transform the requirements into design strategies. Based on these design strategies, the design of VC in a national park in southeast China was taken as an example, and two design teams were used to verify the architectural scheme design and obtain feedback from visitors through a questionnaire survey. The research results show that the design strategies proposed by this study can better meet the expectations and satisfaction of the public. In the future, it is suggested that more parties, such as national park managers and community residents, should be involved in the study to obtain better planning and design strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social impact assessment is a practical requirement for the construction of the national park system, but there is still a lack of comprehensive conceptual frameworks, theoretical explanations, and systematic evaluations. Considering the distinctive characteristics of China's national park system construction, this study improves the existing framework and indicator system for social impact assessment. It conducts a comparative analysis of three typical communities--the inside community, gateway community, and fringe community--surrounding the Giant Panda National Park (Tangjiahe area). Through questionnaire surveys, semi-structured interviews, factor analysis, and One-way ANOVA analysis, we find that the comprehensive perception value of social impacts by the Giant Panda National Park was relatively negative. Respondents' perception values ranked from high to low were social relations, local culture, equity and rights, economy and livelihoods, and knowledge and education. Moreover, except the dimension of economy and livelihoods, there were significant differences in the perception of impacts by the three types of communities. Specifically, the gateway community has the most positive perception of social relations, local culture, and equity and rights; the inside community has the most positive perception of knowledge and education; while the fringe community perceived the most negative impacts in all four dimensions. Furthermore, the primary causes of social impact perception are conservation policies, economic development, and location and transportation. This study suggests that non-economic social impacts should be given more attention, such as equity and rights, and knowledge and education. Also, to ensure that the fringe communities can benefit from the construction and development of national parks, more attention and support from the governments and management agencies are necessary. This study can provide theoretical insights and case-based evidence for the improvement of social impact discussions on protected areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, national parks represent the country's most unique natural landscapes. Scientific evaluation of landscape resources is significant for preserving the authenticity and integrity of national parks. Taking Qianjiangyuan National Park System Pilot Zone as an example, this research investigated the willingness of internal group (residents and administrative staff) and external group (tourists) to pay for a hypothetical market project based on the pilot zone via Contingent Valuation Method to acquire the monetized value of landscape resources in the national park, and applied Logistic Regression to analyze the influencing factors. The results show that the payment rate of external group is higher than that of internal group, and people with different demographics have different payment rates. Both internal and external groups are willing to pay to improve ecological environment, but there are significant differences on reasons for refusal--having a low income is the main reason for the internal group, and the external respondents refuse mainly because of the belief that the payment is owed to government finance. The total monetized value of the research area is 135 million yuan, of which the external value is much higher than internal value. The attitude factors influence landscape resource value more significantly than demographic and environmental factors. The assessment of landscape resource value of national parks is affected by perceptions and demands of multiple interest groups. This research suggests accelerating the construction of a standardized assessment technical system to support the establishment of national park system in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A herd of 15 Chinese elephants attracted international attention during their 2021 northward trek, motivating the government to propose establishment of an Asian elephant national park. However, planning is hampered by a lack of genetic information on the remaining populations in China. We collected DNA from 497 dung samples from all 5 populations encompassing the entire range of elephants in China and used mitochondrial and microsatellite markers to investigate their genetic and demographic structure. We identified 237 unique genotypes (153 females, 84 males), representing 81% of the known population. However, the effective population size was small (28, range 25–32). Historic demographic contraction appeared to account for low haplotype diversity (Hd = 0.235), but moderate nucleotide and nuclear diversity (π = 0.6%, He = 0.55) was attributable to post‐bottleneck recovery involving recent population expansion plus historical gene exchange with elephants in Myanmar, Lao PDR, and Vietnam. The 5 populations fell into 3 clusters, with Nangunhe elephants differing consistently from the other 4 populations (FST = 0.23); elephants from Mengyang, Simao, and Jiangcheng belonged to a single population (henceforth, MSJ), and differed from the Shangyong population (FST = 0.11). Interpopulation genetic variation reflected isolation by distance and female‐biased dispersal. Chinese elephants should be managed as 2 distinct units: Nangunhe and another combining Shangyong and MSJ; their long‐term viability will require restoring gene flow between Shangyong and MSJ, and between elephants in China and neighboring countries. Our results have the potential to inform conservation planning for an iconic megafaunal species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of ecological networks facilitates genetic exchange among species in national parks and is an effective means of avoiding habitat fragmentation. Using the proposed "Ailaoshan-Wuliangshan" in Yunnan Province, China, as the study area, the identification of ecological source sites using the morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) method, extraction of potential ecological corridors using the minimum resistance model (MCR) and construction of the ecological network of national parks were performed. Based on the gravity model, important ecological corridors were selected, and corresponding ecological network optimization strategies were presented. The results showed that (1) the core area identified by MSPA was 4440.08 km2, with a low degree of fragmentation, and is distributed in strips within the woodland land classes in the study area; (2) the establishment of an ecological network model of least cost resistance based on 10 indicators in four dimensions of land tenure, geographic factors, vegetation characteristics, and human meddling; (3) the ecological network included 13 ecological source sites, 77 potential ecological corridors, 48 important ecological corridors and 25 pedestrian pathways and extracts an optimal ecological corridor connecting with the natural reserve; and (4) the network closure degree of the constructed ecological network was (1.18), line point rate (3.08), network connectivity (1.12), and cost ratio (0.98). By using the proposed ecological network construction method, ecological patches and potential corridors can be accurately identified to ensure the integrity and connectivity of the national park while minimizing the land demand pressure of the surrounding communities, which provides some reference for the construction of other national parks' ecological networks in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a national park master plan, functional zoning plays a key role in developing differentiated zoning controls that achieve multiple park construction objectives. In this study, a geographical attribute code and basic zoning elements are developed for the proposed "Ailaoshan-Wuliangshan" National Park, followed by the development of spatial multi-criteria sets and weight sets to determine the suitability of the land. Next, we use a clustering algorithm and conflict unit prioritization to allocate space for multi-target units to get the preliminary zoning schemes, and then identify stable units and unstable units through sensitivity analysis. Ultimately, the functional zoning of the National Park was determined. According to the results, the proposed "Ailaoshan-Wuliangshan" National Park can be divided into nine types of 164 landscape units; the highest land suitability values of each zone showed the traits of differentiation and aggregation in spatial distribution; there are 97 stable units and 67 unstable units; approximately 62.83% and 37.17% of the total park area can be divided into core conservation area (primary sensitive area and secondary sensitive area) and general control area (ecological activity area and ecological control area). By implementing a comprehensive assessment and decision-making process, the defined functional zones are precise and simple to recognize on the ground, and they adhere to the area proportions needed by national standards. Furthermore, the functional zoning is clustered, which avoids the fragmentation of the zoning results causing difficulties in management, and serves as a point of reference for the functional zoning approaches used in other proposed national parks in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecosystem of national parks bears some cultural features. How the cultural ecosystem service functions are perceived by the public and how the cultural ecosystem service functions shape the public's cognition have become urgent scientific questions. This paper performs a case analysis on the Qianjiangyuan National Park System Pilot Area, a representative national park in China, which clarifies the main types of cultural ecosystem service functions from the perspective of the landscape aesthetics benefits of community residents, and analyze the varied impacts of demographics on functional cognition. On this basis, the entropy weight method was adopted to evaluate the importance of each function. Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation was employed to assess the composite level of the cultural service functions. The results show that: (1) the community residents value the benefits brought by the national park the most in terms of the ecological improvement function, and the situation is consistent across the four towns/townships; by contrast, the community residents attach the least importance to the benefits in terms of system governance function. (2) Except for the years of local residence, the community residents' cognition of different cultural ecosystem service functions may vary significantly, owing to factors like gender, age, education level, occupation, and annual mean income. (3) Concerning the importance of functional indices, the importance scores of the natural experience functions, humanistic concern functions, and social service functions are 0.3286, 0.3503, and 0.3211, respectively. The community residents had a moderate to high level of cognition for the cultural ecosystem service functions (3.99). The different types of functions can be sorted by effectiveness as: the social service functions (4.11) > natural experience functions (4.03) > humanistic concern functions (3.86). The research results provide a reference for improving the management level of national parks, and ease the increasingly prominent contradiction between people and land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management evaluation is increasingly required for national parks worldwide as it is an essential mechanism for improving management levels and achieving management objectives. The management capacity evaluation (MCE), an integral component of management evaluation, emphasizes the suitability of management measures. It helps identify the deficiencies in existing management measures and form feedback to improve them, thus increasing the overall management level of national parks. However, the existing MCE methods from international programs suffer from limited adaptability and are difficult to promote in other countries. In this research, we apply the best practice-based (BPB) method to the Three-River-Sources National Park (TNP), the first national park in China, to reveal the changes in its management capacity during the pilot period. The BPB method is new compared with other MCE methods, but is more adaptable to the current situation of China's national parks. Results show that TNP's comprehensive management capacity and the five aspects of management capacities improved effectively, which means the management measures adopted during the pilot phase were generally appropriate and practicable. Some management capacities, such as management organization, legal system construction, management planning, and natural resources confirmation and registration performed well or improved significantly during the pilot period, providing beneficial lessons for other national parks in China. Some management capacities, such as the ecological compensation scheme, monitoring and early warning system, and management team, are still deficient and should be prioritized for future improvement. The effectiveness and operability of the BPB method are validated in this research, as it provides a rapid and accurate diagnosis of TNP's management capacities and useful feedback for improving them. We submit that the BPB method not only contributes to the theoretical improvement of MCE methods, but also shows wider adaptability to different protected area types and countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China announced its first policy framework for the construction of a protected areas system centered on national parks in 2019. It is increasingly recognized that the intentions of local community residents to engage in environmentally responsible behaviors are essential to achieving biodiversity goals in area-based conservation. Using an extended theory of planned behavior that incorporates the emotional factors of "Awe" and "place attachment," this research tested hypotheses and constructed a theoretical model regarding the environmentally responsible behavioral intentions of community residents within and outside Potatso National Park, a pilot park in the new Chinese protected area system. A quantitative questionnaire survey of residents yielded 503 valid responses, and structural equation modeling was used to test the theoretical hypotheses. The results show that Awe has a significantly positive effect on environmentally responsible behavioral intentions. It also has a significantly positive effect on Place Attachment and subjective norms, which also strengthen environmentally responsible behavioral intentions. In addition, Place Attachment was found to be an important mediating factor for the influence of Awe on environmentally responsible behavioral intentions. According to the general model, both rational and emotional factors drive the behavioral intentions of local residents. Moreover, the findings reveal that the regulating effect of Place Attachment plays a greater role among those whose livelihoods are more dependent on the natural environment, while subjective norms play a greater role among those whose livelihoods are less dependent on the natural environment. The results provide a useful theoretical basis and practical reference for the use of rational and emotional factors to drive environmentally responsible behaviors among residents in and surrounding national parks, and for the promotion of the role of protected areas in nature preservation and community development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the national park as an important measure of ecological protection, China has started 10 national park system pilot areas. However, the research on the comprehensive evaluation of national park construction and development is insufficient. The main purpose of this study was to establish a comprehensive evaluation index system for the pilot area of the national park system. The method of the Analytic Hierarchy Process combined with the Delphi method by ten relevant experts was used. The comprehensive evaluation index system for the national park system pilot areas was composed of the objective level and the criteria level which includes three items: natural resource conditions; research, education and recreation functions; and protection and management conditions. The indicator level involved seven items and the factor level included 31 items. Furthermore, the weight of each item in these levels was obtained through the Delphi method by the judgement of selected experts. The Qianjiangyuan National Park System Pilot Area (QNPSPA) was selected as the study case for empirical research. The score of the comprehensive evaluation of the QNPSPA was 90.801, which belongs to Grade I in the five catalogues, indicating its comprehensive construction level was very high and its protection and management measures were efficient. However, significant deficiencies also existed in the area suitability, recreation facilities and production, natural resource property rights, human landscape value and ecosystem integrity. To address these problems, five suggestions were proposed. For example, strengthening cross-administrative cooperation and communication, improving the construction of recreational facilities, etc. The evaluation framework proposed in this study could play a positive role in the construction evaluation of the pilot areas of national parks in China and is conducive to promoting the evaluation research of national parks in China and promoting the development of conservation and construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• It is the first time to quantify ecosystem services of National Park of Hainan Tropical Rainforest for seven different regions in 2000, 2010 and 2019. • The establishment of the national park effectively improved ecosystem services. • National park had the main ecosystem services of water conservation, carbon storage and oxygen release, while showed considerable spatial heterogeneity. • Conservation priorities were assigned to natural forests in high-altitude areas, mostly in central parts of the national park. Hainan island in south China harbours vast areas of virgin forests, with rich biodiversity and is included in the globally important Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot. In 2018, a national park covering an area of 4269 km2 of the island was proposed to conserve its rainforest ecosystem integrity and authenticity. In this study, using an integrated valuation of ecosystem services and tradeoffs (InVEST) model, a revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE), a net primary productivity transformation formula, and the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model, we quantified five ecosystem services, i.e. water conservation, soil retention, carbon storage, oxygen release and biodiversity maintenance. The data of five ecosystem services was recorded in the year 2000, 2010 and 2019, for seven regions of the national park including Mt. Jianfeng (JFL), Mt. Bawang (BWL), Mt. Diaoluo (DLS), Mt. Limu (LMS), Mt. Yingge (YGL), Mt. Wuzhi (WZS), and Maorui Forest Farm (MR). Then, we determined the importance of each of the ecosystem services for each region. Finally, we determined conservation priority sites of every regions respectively for each ecosystem service by comparing conservation efficiencies with the help of ordered weighted averaging. We found that total and mean amounts of five ecosystem services in the national park had declined in 2010 but increased in 2019, indicating the establishment of the national park effectively improved ecosystem services. Over 65 % areas of the national park exhibited dominant ecosystem services of water conservation, carbon storage and oxygen release. Soil retention was relatively uniform in seven regions, whereas the water conservation was concentrated in the eastern part of the national park, i.e. YGL, LMS, WZS and DLS. Carbon storage and oxygen release were highest at the central part of the national park including WZS, DLS, YGL, BWL, and MR, while biodiversity maintenance was the top ecosystem service for WZS, DLS, BWL and MR. Conservation priorities were assigned to natural forests in high-altitude areas in WZS, DLS, YGL, BWL, and MR, mostly in central parts of the national park. These results revealed the spatiotemporal pattern of ecosystem services and conservation priorities. It is helpful to facilitate precise management of this newly established national park. The innovative approach identifies key ecosystem services and their trade-offs to pinpoint conservation areas, offering valuable insights for the management of other national parks and protected areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human activities change the natural ecosystem and cause the decline of the intact ecosystem. Establishing an applicable and efficient human activity monitoring indicator system benefits China's ambitious national park system construction. In this study, we established a refined technique for ecological intactness scores (EIS) and applied it in the area of Giant Panda National Park (GPNP) from 1980 to 2020 by quantifying four types of human interferences including land use and cover change (LUCC), road construction, water reservoir and hydropower construction, and mining. The results show the following: (1) Under the ecological intactness score range of 0–10, the GPNP with about 92.6% area of the EIS was above 6.0, and the mean baseline level of intactness was 7.1 when it was established in 2018. (2) The EIS in the east of Qionglaishan and south of Minshan were relatively lower than the rest of the study area. (3) During the past 40 years, 80% of the GPNP's ecological intactness has remained stable. (4) In total, 14% of the GPNP was degraded mainly in the areas below 1200 m with severe human activities. (5) LUCC and road construction were the main driving factors for the decrease of ecological intactness in the GPNP. (6) The habitat of the giant panda is mainly distributed in the areas with an EIS above 6.0, and this is a key link between ecological intactness and habitat suitability. Our research proved that the ecological intactness score (EIS) is an effective indicator for monitoring and assessing the impact of human activities on the regional natural ecosystem and could be helpful for ecological restoration and human activities management GPNP in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A healthy park–people relationship depends essentially on the fair and sustainable maintenance of rural livelihood. When a protected area is designated, rural people may face restrictions on access to land and resource use. In Wuyishan of China, we analyzed the role of traditional tea cultivation during consistent protected area management to find ways to maintain the stability of this social-ecological system in the new national park era. Based on the social-ecological system meaning perception, we used an intensive social survey to investigate residents' perception of the ecosystem in terms of tea cultivation and its interaction with conservation policies. Results showed that tea cultivation brought major household income and was associated with multiple cultural services. Protected area management affected land use, and conservation outcomes were more obvious to farmers than economic and social ones. We argue that the multi-functionality of the forest-tea system has the potential to benefit both the local people and the public through conservation-compatible activities at three levels: to regulate biophysical elements in the land plot, to link production and market at the mountain level, and to secure tenure and encourage community participation at the landscape level. This knowledge co-production approach revealed that to avoid a negative park–people relationship, traditional knowledge and people's right to benefit must be respected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background—The social responsibility of the national park covets a wide range, and all sectors of the community pay high attention to the implementation of the responsibility. And the social responsibility report of national parks is an important way for national parks to transmit their social responsibility information to the outside world. But the current situation of China's national park social responsibility report is not optimistic. (2) Methods—By consulting the official websites of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration of China, ten national park trials, and forest district governments, a total of 7 comprehensive reports containing national park social responsibility information were collected. Based on seven published reports, through content analysis method, the main stakeholders of national parks and social responsibility of national parks have been identified. According to the international and domestic standards for the compilation of social responsibility reports, the 7 reports and relevant literature at our disposal, the framework of national park social responsibility report has been designed on the basis of the stakeholders' perspective. (3) Results—Generally speaking, the initiative in China's national park social responsibility report is not enough. Moreover, due to the lack of compilation standards of social responsibility reports in national parks, the published reports generally have problems such as incomplete content, too large random of indicator selection and measurement method. First of all, the government is most concerned about the social responsibility information in three aspects: the protection and utilization of the ecological environment and resources of the national park, capital management and income generation, and regulations and law enforcement. Second, national parks need to provide scientific research and education groups with information on social responsibilities in both scientific research and popular science education. Third, the community is mainly concerned about the social responsibility information of national parks in the three aspects of community co-construction, economic development and cultural construction. Finally, national parks need to report to tourists on their social responsibilities in terms of tourist reception and park construction. (4) Conclusions and Discussions—Compilation standards of China's national park social responsibility report and corresponding framework are not yet complete. And there are some common problems, such as lack of completeness of report content, random selection of indicators and measurement methods, which greatly reduce the use value of the report. So there are many problems in existing reports that need to be improved. The main stakeholders of Chinese national parks include the government, scientific research and education organizations, communities, and tourists. The design of the social responsibility reporting framework for national parks should ensure that all kinds of social responsibility information can be provided to relevant stakeholders in a targeted manner. In order to ensure that all kinds of social responsibility information can be provided to relevant stake-holders and provide reference for the compilation of national park social responsibility report, two suggestions are put forward to improve the national park social responsibility report. First, establish and improve a mandatory social responsibility information disclosure system to enhance the awareness of social responsibility reporting in national parks. Promulgate standards for the compilation of national park social responsibility reports to provide scientific guidance for the construction of the report's content framework, index selection and measurement. Second, through a third-party certificate authority, a third-party independent audit of the report is implemented, and the audit results are made public to improve the authenticity and reliability of the report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, more people tend to spend their recreational time in large national parks, and trace metal(loid)s in soils have attracted long-term attention due to their possible harm to human health. To investigate the pollution levels, potential sources and health risks of trace metal(loid)s in road soils, a total of eight trace metal(loid)s (including As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn and Hg) from 47 soil samples along roads were studied in the Huangshan National Park in Southeast China. The results showed that the concentrations of As, Cd, Pb, Zn and Hg appeared different degrees of pollution compared with their corresponding background values. According to the pollution indices, Hg and Cd were recognized as significant pollutants presenting moderate to high ecological risk. Combining principal component analysis and positive matrix factorization model, the results showed that traffic, industrial, agricultural and natural sources were the potential origins of trace metal(loid)s in this area, with contribution rates of 39.93%, 25.92%, 10.53% and 23.62%, respectively. Non-carcinogenic risks were all negligible, while the carcinogenic risk of As was higher than the limit (1 × 10−6). Moreover, children were more susceptible to trace metal(loid)s by ingestion which appeared to be a more important exposure pathway than dermal contact and inhalation. The contribution rates of different sources to non-carcinogenic risks and carcinogenic risks were similar among children and adults, while traffic and industrial sources have a significant impact on health risks. This study will give more insights to control the environmental risks of trace metal(loid)s in national parks. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing species' vulnerability to climate change is a prerequisite for developing effective strategies to reduce emerging climate‐related threats. We used the maximum entropy algorithm (MaxEnt model) to assess potential changes in suitable snow leopard (Panthera uncia) habitat in Qinghai Province, China, under a mild climate change scenario. Our results showed that the area of suitable snow leopard habitat in Qinghai Province was 302,821 km2 under current conditions and 228,997 km2 under the 2050s climatic scenario, with a mean upward shift in elevation of 90 m. At present, nature reserves protect 38.78% of currently suitable habitat and will protect 42.56% of future suitable habitat. Current areas of climate refugia amounted to 212,341 km2 and are mainly distributed in the Sanjiangyuan region, Qilian mountains, and surrounding areas. Our results provide valuable information for formulating strategies to meet future conservation challenges brought on by climate stress. We suggest that conservation efforts in Qinghai Province should focus on protecting areas of climate refugia and on maintaining or building corridors when planning for future species management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation-compatible development of rural communities is an important part of nature conservation objectives. Understanding the role of agriculture, which is often practiced in or bordering the protected areas in rural China, is critical for managing conservation networks considering that limited spatial areas are available for enclosed protected areas. Important Agricultural Heritage Systems stand out for their multi-functionality, and some of their values are compatible with nature conservation. This paper examined the concept, management objectives and resource management characteristics of the Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (IAHS) by analysing their interactions with national parks in terms of community development. The results reveal that management strategies of dynamic conservation, integrated protection and adaptive management of the IAHS can contribute to those national park management objectives concerning conservation-compatible livelihood. However, the typology of the protected area system, including the traditional agricultural system as a new type, needs further consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photographs are widely used to visualise science. However, the influence of visual quality of photographs on the effectiveness of science communication is often disregarded and seldom tested. This study examines how the visual quality of photographs affects science communication on interpretive signage within Xixi National Wetland Park, China. Results show that a high-quality photograph on the signage significantly increased the following affective and cognitive aspects of communication: (1) a visitor's intention to read the signage, (2) enjoyment of reading the interpretive information, (3) understanding and (4) recall of the information on the signage. This study offers empirical evidence for the benefits of using high-quality photographs to visualise science. To improve the effectiveness of science communication in interpretive products, we argue that the quality of the selected photographs should be considered seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Place attachment has been a research focus in the fields of park and recreation management. Place attachment plays an important role in promoting sustainable development of parks and mountain tourism destination, however, there are limited studies that identified the spatial patterns of place attachment, especially in the context of mountain tourism destinations in China. Also, the geospatial spectrum of visitors is usually broad, examining the multivariate relationships among spatial proximity, perceived authenticity, and place attachment are essential for mountain tourism destinations to promote destination image and strengthen emotional bonding with targeted visitor groups. In this study, we selected an iconic and highly visited park, Jiuzhai Valley National Park in China, as our study site and conducted an on-site visitor survey to collect 557 samples. Study uses factor analysis and the structure equation model to analyze the relationship among spatial proximity, perceived authenticity, and place attachment. Results validate the two-dimension structure of place attachment and perceived authenticity. Study findings suggest that spatial proximity has significant impacts on existential authenticity and place identity, but has no significant impacts on place dependence. Perceived authenticity has a positive impact on place attachment. Study results advance the theories of place attachment and provide effective strategies to enhance emotional attachment between visitors and mountain tourism destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the rationality of zoning designations and management measures in the initial establishment of national parks in China is of great significance for supporting decision-making regarding habitat conservation. There exists a research gap in exploring the threshold effects of both environmental and human-related factors on habitat distribution in the context of national parks. However, it may be a challenge because of the limited species distribution data. Our study aims to put forward an analytical framework that integrates species distribution models (SDMs) with interpretable machine learning methods. A case study was performed in the Sichuan region of the Giant Panda National Park (GPNP). We constructed a SDM based on the Random Forest algorithm and made use of accessible remote sensing and big data to predict the distribution of giant panda habitat (GPH) in 2020. Interpretable machine learning methods, namely Partial dependence plots (PDPs) and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), were utilized to uncover the underlying mechanisms of environmental and anthropogenic variables influencing the GPH distribution. Through GIS overlay analysis, areas where conflicts between human settlements, transportation infrastructure, and GPH exist were identified. Our findings indicated a potential 28.44 % decrease in GPH from 2014 to 2020. Environmental factors such as temperature, topography, and vegetation type, as well as anthropogenic factors including distance to built-up areas and transportation infrastructure, notably distance to national roads, provincial roads and city arterial roads, influenced the GPH distribution with threshold effects significantly. The overlay analysis revealed escalated conflicts between human settlements, transportation infrastructure, and GPH in 2020 compared to 2014. Currently, the Sichuan region of the GPNP implements two zones: a core protection zone and a general control zone, covering 63.71 % of the GPH, while 36.29 % remains outside the management scope. Drawing from the analysis above, this study provided suggestions for the adjustment of zoning designations and management measures in the GPNP., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

National park roads and parkways is an important part of national parks in the United States. The road is integrated with national parks, which is the characteristics and brand image of national parks. National park roads and parkways is not only an important means of transportation in national parks, but also a tourist attraction and destination. For tourists, driving on the national park roads and parkways means visiting the national parks. The development of national park roads and parkways embodies the integration of road engineering and aesthetics, philosophy, recreation, ecology and other disciplines, promotes the transformation of road from a single traffic function to a complex function of recreation, landscape, culture and protection, highlights the gorgeous landscape and imaginative engineering alignment, and also shows how to provide diversified recreational opportunities in protecting priceless natural and cultural resources to achieve a balance between environmental protection and public tourists. This paper makes a thorough analysis of the development process of American national park roads and parkways in the past hundred years from the aspects of concepts, development background, construction idea, development measures, management system, financial support and construction practice, and summarizes the development experience and enlightenment. The conclusion is to grasp the law of national park roads and parkways development in essence. From this point of view, the paper puts forward some suggestions for the development of China's national park roads and parkways. These studies are of great theoretical value and practical significance to the flourishing development of China's national parks, national park roads and parkways, tourist scenic byways and tourist highways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Southern Yangtze University: Humanities & Social Sciences Edition is the property of Jiangnan Daxue and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Chinese outbound tourism is one of the fastest growing industries worldwide, and with this growth, there has been a surge in international tourism to national parks. For example, 40% of Chinese travelers visited a national park during their U.S. travels (Office of Travel and Tourism Industries [OTTI], 2016). As one of the most popular national parks in the world, Yellowstone National Park (YELL) has swelled in Chinese visitation (Resource Systems Group [RSG], 2017). Despite positive economic aspects of increased tourism, parks and communities are faced with challenges that can impact management and the tourists' experience. There is extremely limited research on Chinese tourism to U.S. national parks, and this study addresses these gaps through a case study in West Yellowstone, the most popular gateway community of YELL. Through over 50 interviews with Chinese tourists, tour operators, and local business owners, specifically, we aim to gain a greater understanding of: 1) Chinese travel trends and motivations for visiting national parks, 2) Chinese tourists' perceptions of park resources, 3) Chinese tourists' modes for communication and information exchange, and 4) perceptions and strategies implemented by businesses in gateway communities to adapt to Chinese tourism. Major findings of the study include that Chinese tourists at YELL primarily obtain their information from friends, family, and Chinese websites with limited tourists visiting or using the National Park Service (NPS) YELL website. Our findings suggest that national park and gateway community communications on social media apps such as WeChat are a major area for growth and opportunity. Finally, the gateway community of West Yellowstone is experiencing changes due to an influx of Chineseowned businesses and tourists, and offer insight for how to adapt to change. This study addresses a largely understudied topic despite the growing trends of Chinese tourists to national parks and protected areas globally. The study's findings will be of interest to other parks and protected areas around the world that are experiencing or are anticipating Chinese tourism growth, and offers implications for Chinese tourism communication and marketing outside the national park setting. Finally, our exploratory study presents an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to further study Chinese tourism to national parks and gateway communities in diverse settings, which can lead to comparability of findings and also support dialogue around tourism planning, marketing, communication for protected areas and their gateway communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In 2017, China announced its first policy framework for establishing a national park system, along with ten pilot national parks. Rather than viewing the announcement from a techno-bureaucratic perspective, this paper considers the politics of the proposed national park system. Basing my argument upon a case study and employing discourse analysis, I argue that the top-down approach is prioritised in the planning and management of the national park system, and that the involvement of civil society groups in the making of China's national parks does not guarantee an inclusive and bottom-up approach. From the 1970s onwards, worldwide the conservation paradigm gradually shifted to recognise the importance of a participatory and inclusive approach to protected area management. China's moving away from such understanding and practice may eventually undermine the rights of local communities and threaten to hamper the conservation goals that the national parks aim to achieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's national parks aim to promote conservation and improve public welfare. This research took tourists as one of the key ecosystem services beneficiaries. It used an ecosystem services approach to identify social perceptions and willingness to pay regarding different ecosystem services in the Wusyishan National Park Pilot, in order to find ways to optimise tourism to promote conservation and to improve public welfare in the establishment of the national park system. A social survey was conducted using questionaires focusing on the assessment of the importance of ecosystem services and the willingness to pay, and the data were analysed using weighted scoring, multiple correspondence analysis and optimal scaling regression. Results showed that most respondents recognised the importance of various cultural services, including eco- tourism which is high in practicality, activities to have cultural experience which is rather abstract and enjoying the beautiful scenery; however, there were trade-offs among specific ecosystem services. Tourists thought highly of maintaining air quality and it was the only regulating service that ranked the top five. In addition, they did not choose any provisioning services among the top five important ecosystem services. Under the entry tickets fee waiver hypothesis, more than 90% respondents were willing to pay for maintainance of the ecosystem services, but the average payment of 165.9 yuan/person was less than current ticket price. Willingness to pay was significantly affected by education level and career; together with the impact of age and personal income, clustered groups with certain willingness to pay were identified. These findings indicate that in the development of tourism in national parks, managers should focus on securing typical cultural ecosystem services regarding tradeoffs in demand from different tourist groups. They also should improve the public's awareness of the chracteristics of ecosystems to facilitate their active participation in conservation. q [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The accuracy of the ESV assessment in NTLNP was refined by ESV equivalent factors. • NTLNP waters showed 27.91. • A CHSA-based management scheme was developed for regulatory zones within the NTLNP. The Northeast Tiger-Leopard National Park (NTLNP) in China is an area of great ecological significance, known for its abundant wilderness resources and biodiversity. However, the habitats in NTLNP have been threatened by historical land use and land cover (LULC) changes caused by urban expansion and economic development. In response to this challenge, this study based on remote sensing-derived LULC products from 2005 to 2020, utilized the equivalent factors refined ecosystem service values (ESV) assessment model, and in conjunction with Moran's I and Getis-Ord Gi* spatial analysis methods to evaluate the macro-scale and pixel-scale spatio-temporal dynamics of ESV in the NTLNP. We also employed the cold and hot spot analysis (CHSA) method to identify zones of ESV improvement and degradation within the NTLNP. Our findings indicate that over the past 15 years: (1) Forestland in the NTLNP possesses the most substantial ESV proportion (97.48%), and the regulating service value is the major contributor among the four types of services (71.31%). (2) Despite a fluctuating trend of increasing, decreasing, and then growing overall ESV growth within the NTLNP, the ecological benefits have been difficult to return to their peak values of 42.184 billion CNY in 2015. (3) The waters of NTLNP exhibit a high LULC dynamic of 27.91%, with an ESV underestimation of 28.4 million CNY. (4) The pixel-scale analysis unveils a dispersed distribution of ESV degradation pixels, with their cumulative area significantly larger than the share of ESV improvement pixels. (5) The CHSA results showed that areas with intensive human activity, such as towns and their surrounding areas, tend to experience ESV degradation, while regions with effective river management, such as the river basin of Hunchun county-level city, experience ESV improvement. Therefore, this study delineates the regulatory zones of the NTLNP by the result of the CHSA-based decision tree, pinpoints ecologically threatened core areas and further categorizes these based on risk levels and types, helping maintain a dynamic balance between the allocation of human and physical resources for park management and the primary conservation needs within the national park. Moreover, the study recommends that policymakers take measures to strengthen risk mitigation, enhance their focus on areas where ESV is fragile, and optimize the allocation of internal resources in national parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National park is a natural ecological region with national representative resources, and the construction of national park system is an important part of China's land ecological security and ecological civilization system reform. According to the dominant position of national park and the concept of ecosystem service, this paper build the comprehensive evaluation model containing six key indicators including ecological system integrity, ecological importance, authenticityty, biodiversity, natural landscape value and cultural heritage value, based on international experience, national park function and connotation of policy of national park. Single element layer analysis and multi- index superposition analysis were implemented, and then combined with China's ecological geographic area, ecological function regionalization and provincial- level administrative region, selecting factors are extracted and the potential construction areas of national parks are identified. Results show that, the high ecosystem integrity areas of China distribute obviously in large natural geographical units, including mountainous areas, forests, lakes, grasslands and other ecosystem areas. The authenticity in eastern and central regions, especially coastal areas, plains and urbanization areas, is relatively low. The species diversity in Hengduanshan, Qinling, and Xishuangbanna ecological areas is high. There are spatial concentrations of high natural landscape and cultural heritage value areas, mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and along the Heihe-Tengchong Line. Those areas with high values of the ecological system integrity, ecological importance, biological diversity and ecosystem authenticity have strong characteristics of convergence. Areas with good ecosystem integrity often bear important ecological functions, have high biodiversity and are well preserved. The natural geographical areas are obviously superposed on China's three big ladders. The potential higher score regions in east and west area are of great difference in area that potential regions in the west are more continuous in space and often cross administrative boundaries. In this paper, we select 55 potential areas in total for national park construction in the future. This study can provide a methodological and theoretical reference for the reasonable layout of national park construction in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese leadership has formally proposed that the national park system should initiate an institutional change of conservation management by reforming the governance system and management mechanism. The principle of “ecological protection first and public welfare a priority” indicates that both biodiversity and ecosystem services are essential. The “China national parks for people” project was, therefore, launched to practice an ecosystem services approach in national park planning so that scientists, practitioners and decision makers could communicate using a science-policy-practice interface (SPPI). By linking ecosystem services to the social demand of their beneficiaries through the economic definition, we set a conceptual framework for China national park construction that may also be applicable to other developing countries facing similar conservation challenges so that rural livelihood is not negligible regarding conservation. This study focuses on reducing trade-offs between ecosystem services that are important for local livelihood and that are, generally, public goods in a national park pilot. A technical route is proposed starting from the identification of beneficiaries through to regulating community behaviour using ecosystem services mapping, assessment and governance analyses. It is hypothesized that this approach will assist in national park zoning and land management, and this approach is designed to trigger increased discussion on benefit sharing in future national parks, e.g., the Wuyishan pilot, where this research was performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to understand the impacts of regional emission changes and local tourism on sulfur and nitrogen wet deposition in Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve of southwestern China, wet deposition was monitored at a background site (Rize) and a tourist-affected site (PE: park entrance) in the reserve during 2015–2016. The observation data were compared between Rize and PE and between 2010–2011 and 2015–2016 monitoring campaigns. Also, the observation data were used in the Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) model to identify the major sources of sulfur and nitrogen wet deposition. The results show that although local tourism emissions had considerable contributions to NH 4 + , NO 2 − , NO 3 − , and SO 4 2− concentrations in wet deposition ( p < 0.05), most of the annual Volume Weighted Mean (VWM) concentrations of these four ions were likely from emissions outside Jiuzhaigou. Annual wet deposition fluxes of the four ions were also affected more by precipitation and regional emissions than by local emissions. Although annual precipitation was higher at Rize (818 mm) during 2015–2016 than at another background site near Long Lake (LL: 752 mm) during 2010–2011, the annual concentrations and fluxes of SO 4 2− and NO 3 − wet deposition decreased by 77% and 74% for SO 4 2− and by 12% and 19% for NO 3 − , respectively, most likely due to regional emission reductions. Similar large reductions in SO 4 2− and NO 3 − concentrations have been also found in some other sites in southwestern China. In contrast, the annual concentration and flux of NH 4 + wet deposition at Rize during 2015–2016 were 1.4 and 1.2 times of that measured at LL during 2010–2011, respectively. The results of source apportionment analysis and tour bus emission estimates suggest that elevated NH 4 + wet deposition was possibly related to NH 3 emissions from local tour buses, but additional studies on NH 3 emissions from tour buses in the reserve are needed to confirm this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve sustainable development goals and to solve environmental problems, land resources in eco-sensitive areas should be used and optimized. Qinghai, which is an important eco-sensitive area in China, represents a typical ecological vulnerable region on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Using land use/cover data for 2000, 2010 and 2020, this study applied a series of quantitative methods to analyze the spatial pattern and structure of the production-living-ecological space (PLES) in Qinghai. The results indicated that the spatial pattern of the PLES in Qinghai was stable over time, but the spatial distribution was very different. The structure of the PLES in Qinghai was stable, and the proportion of each space from high to low was ecological (81.01%), production (18.13%) and living (0.86%). We found that the proportion of ecological space in both the Qilian Mountains and the Three River Headwaters Region was lower than the rest of the study area, except for the Yellow River-Huangshui River Valley. Our study objectively and credibly presented the characteristics of the PLES in an important eco-sensitive area in China. This study further formulated targeted policy suggestions to provide a basis for regional sustainable development, ecological environment protection, and land and space optimization in Qinghai., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Massive deposition of calcium carbonate in ambient temperature waters (tufa) can form magnificent tufa landscapes, many of which are designated as protected areas. However, tufa landscapes in many areas are threatened by both local anthropogenic activities and climate change. This study, for the first time, posed the question whether the tufa landscape degradation (characterized by tufa degradation and increased biomass of green algae) in Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve of China is partially caused by regional air pollution and climate warming. The results indicate that wet deposition (including rain and snow) polluted by anthropogenic SO 2 , NO x , and NH 3 emissions dissolves exposed tufa and may considerably reduce tufa deposition rate and even cause tufa dissolution within shallow waters. These effects of wet deposition on tufa enhanced as pH of wet deposition decreased from 8.01 to 5.06. Annual Volume Weighted Mean concentration of reactive nitrogen (including NH 4 + and NO 3 − ) in wet deposition (26.1 μmol L − 1 ) was 1.8 times of the corresponding value of runoff (14.8 μmol L − 1 ) and exceeded China's national standard of total nitrogen in runoff for nature reserves (14.3 μmol L − 1 ), indicating a direct nitrogen fertilization effect of wet deposition on green algae. As water temperature is the major limiting factor of algal growth in Jiuzhaigou and temperature in the top layer (0–5 cm) of runoff (depth < 1 m, no canopy coverage of trees and shrubs) was significantly higher at the sites with increased biomass of green algae ( p < 0.05), climate warming in this region would favor algal growth. In sum, this study suggests that climate warming and enhanced sulfur and nitrogen deposition have contributed to the current degradation of tufa landscape in Jiuzhaigou, but in order to quantify the contributions, further studies are needed, as many other anthropogenic and natural processes also influence tufa landscape evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National park is a major institutional innovation to promote the construction of ecological civilization in China. How to scientifically classify types and identify spaces is a fundamental task in the layout and construction of national parks, which is critically needed in practice. Based on the national conditions of China and related international experience, we classified national parks into wilderness oriented, ecological priority, recreation oriented, and heritage oriented types, and constructed a relatively complete national park classification scheme. With Yunnan Province as a case, which has a high degree of natural and human diversity, we established a set of index and zoning rules based on "dual evaluation". The artificial neural networks were used to establish a land use evolution learning algorithm. The meta-cellular automata incorporating an adaptive inertia mechanism was used for spatio-temporal simulation. Spatial identification of different types of national parks was performed for the whole province under high resolution. The contraction-expansion principle was applied to compare, correct, and optimize the identified areas. A comprehensive plan for the future layout of Yunnan National Park was proposed. The results showed that national parks in Yunnan Province were mainly concentrated in the Sanjiang region and the Hengduan Mountains, the west and southwest Yunnan. Those three types of areas could be used as key areas for future natio-nal park planning and protection. The general and worth popularizing research paradigm for national park typology and spatial identification established here could be served as a reference for national application.

The objective of this paper is to seek an eco-friendly development path for traditional industries in protected areas. We propose a conceptual framework that is built on the combination of ecological, multifunctional agriculture, and industrial integration literature. The framework provides a conceptual foundation for analysing the potential of traditional industry transformation in a single national park to improve rural livelihoods under conservation restraints. In a problem-oridented way, we conceptualise two transformation paths for traditional industries - the ecologicalisation of industry and the diversification of industrial functions – which aim to maintain and promote the stability of the social-ecological systems of national parks in general, and to enhance the added-value of traditional industries in specific. We apply our conceptualisation to two case studies in a comparative way to represent the feasibility of the framework to provide context-specific measures following the two paths. We identify and analyse key elements and conditions that are possible to transform the pastoralism in the Qilianshan National Park and tea cultivation in the Wuyishan National Park of China. Matching key elements to the conceptual framework, the results show that pastoralism needs to improve the branding of products and herders' capabilities of adjusting to the changing world; tea industries need to regulate branding, strengthen cooperation between producers of different scales, and promote cultural valorisation. Therefore, the regional industrial policies must coordinate with conservation policies to make sure rural communities realise their development rights while taking the responsibility of conservation. The theoretical contribution of this paper is that we conceptualise industrial development to be inclusive with conservation when economic development and conservation are thought incompatible. Our conceptual framework can be extended as a prescriptive management tool for integrated industrial planning and protected area management in China and other developing world. • Industrial development can be inclusive to livelihoods and conservation. • Science-based value-adding is essential to traditional industrial transformation. • An industrial transformation model is conceptualised for national park management. • Traditional industry can contribute to the stability of social-ecological systems. • Institution building and stakeholder cooperation are critical to the local context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research undertook a visitor survey in two protected areas in different cultural contexts, namely China and the UK, to explore whether the value a person attaches to the environment influences their attitude towards sustainable tourism development in national parks. Structural equation models were developed with data from 597 and 368 questionnaires collected in Jiuzhaigou National Scenic Area, China and the New Forest National Park, UK respectively. The results suggested that anthropocentric or ecocentric values significantly influence people's attitudes to tourism and sustainable development. The same structured causal relationship was found in both samples, between people's attitudes towards the natural environment, conservation and tourism in a national park context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of China Tourism Research is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As part of its effort to balance economic development with environmental objectives, China has established a new national park system, with the first five locations formally established in 2021. However, as the new parks all host or are proximate to human populations, aligning the socioeconomic needs and aspirations of local communities with conservation aims is critical for the long-term success of the parks. In this narrative review, the authors identify the ecological priorities and socioeconomic stakeholders of each of the five national parks; explore the tensions and synergies between these priorities and stakeholders; and synthesize the policy recommendations most frequently cited in the literature. A total of 119 studies were reviewed. Aligning traditional livelihoods with conservation, limiting road construction, promoting education and environmental awareness, and supporting the development of a sustainable tourism industry are identified as important steps to balance conservation with economic development in the new national parks.

Being responsible for ensuring nature preservation, environmental interpretation raises people's awareness of nature preservation as a form of public service, and enhance their environmentally responsible behavior. Based on the flow theory, this study proposes a conceptual model of environmental interpretation impacts on visit motivation, ecological experience, environmental attitudes, and environmental behaviors. Selecting the users (visitors) of environmental interpretation at Potatso National Park in Shangri-La, Yunnan Province, China, we obtained 568 valid questionnaires and used Amos software to analyze a structural equation model to verify the model. The results indicate that the environmental interpretation plays a significant role in enriching the public's ecological experience, which is an intermediary variable in which visiting motivation influences environmental attitudes and guides environmentally responsible behavior. The research suggests that national parks should strengthen the environmental interpretation facilities experiential and available, and adjust the configuration of the existing interpretation media in the three-dimensional structure of theme, space, and time, considering the motivation of the public visits, enriching ecological experience, and inspiring service details.

Copyright of Journal of China Tourism Research is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the economic impact of tourism in and around China's Zhangjiajie City, a destination known for its protected areas and natural beauty. It is a rather unique case in that it is a natural attraction in the developing world that attracts predominately domestic tourists. Based on the analysis of published governmental statistical data, this study concludes that tourism has accelerated the economic development of the region, transformed the industrial base of the region, and that tourism is gradually emerging as the dominant economic sector. It concludes by discussing future threats to Zhangjiajie's tourism-centric economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fauna lists from nature reserves, game reserves and national parks are commonly used to depict modern fauna communities in synecological studies for the reconstruction of palaeocommunities and palaeoenvironments. This relies on the assumption that the modern fauna lists are truly representative samples of the communities they constitute. This study seeks to identify limitations in the use of such lists and to explore ways to mitigate or address some of the associated problems. We use modern fauna communities from national parks and game reserves in Asia. Potential limitations identified in the use of the modern fauna lists include under-representation of particular taxonomic groups; taxonomically unrepresentative lists; and unrepresentative habitat descriptions for the communities. In this study, the potential for under-representation of particular taxonomic groups is addressed by restricting the analysis to large-bodied fauna; fauna lists are subjected to taxonomic distinctness analysis to distinguish lists which are taxonomically representative from those which are not; and habitat descriptions are not accepted a priori but instead fauna lists are subjected to cluster and principle components analysis in order to identify the most parsimonious habitat groupings on the basis of the fauna. The minimum number of species required in the characterization of modern communities to confidently differentiate between the habitat types they utilize is also quantified. A synecological analysis for the Gongwangling palaeocommunity, Lantian, China is presented on the basis of data from protected natural areas whose limitations have been addressed. This analysis suggests a reconstruction of closed habitat for Gongwangling. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Through the construction of national parks to optimize the ecological, production and living space structures, ecological assets can be converted into ecological product values under the premise of maximizing the protection of the original natural ecological environment. In this way, multiple regional economic, social and ecological benefits can be realized. Of course, unreasonable and high-intensity production and living (tourism) activities of human beings will cause irreversible negative effects. Therefore, paying attention to the environmental stress process and its spatial effects brought about by human activities under the background of national park construction is of great significance for coordinating the man-land coupling system and improving the sustainability of key eco-function zones. Taking the Three-River-Source National Park (TRSNP) region as a typical case study, based on the spatial identification of anthropogenic pollution and the estimation of water and air pollutant emissions, this study quantitatively evaluates the environmental stress intensity and analyzes its spatial effects from the perspective of "point-line-plane" stress characteristics. The results show that the effect of environmental stress from anthropogenic pollutants on the TRSNP region is relatively low but shows significant spatial differentiation. The stress intensity in central cities (towns) is relatively high, and the four counties where national parks are located account for only 1/2 of the average stress intensity. From 2012 to 2016, urbanization and industrialization showed significant "point-like" environmental stress; agriculture and animal husbandry production increased the "plane-like" stress; and tourism and transportation showed a "line-like" stress, shifting from points to lines. It is recommended to formulate management and control measures to alleviate the environmental stress intensity in important ecological function areas from four aspects: improving the carrying capacity of environmental facilities, establishing a functional zoning control system, implementing environmental regulations for production and living, and standardizing the environmental ethics and moral concepts of the whole society. [Display omitted] • Estimated the anthropogenic pollution emissions of the Three-River-Source National Park region in 2012 and 2016. •The environmental stress intensity of human activities shows significant differences within and outside the national park. •The spatial effect of anthropogenic environmental stress is characterized by "point-line-plane". •A comprehensive policy must be adopted to deal with environmental pollution in the Key eco-functional zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been making efforts in nature conservation by developing a new national park system. Setting a fee-based entrance policy for the newly established national parks can be challenging without information on visitors' willingness to pay (WTP). Thus, this study aims to evaluate visitors' WTP entrance fees with a dataset of 1215 visitors collected in China's planned Qinling National Park (QNP). Using the double bounded dichotomous choice format of the contingent valuation method, we obtained the mean WTP for the entrance fee of QNP of 200 yuan. Visitors' demand becomes relatively inelastic at the recommended entrance fee of 160 yuan when the expected ticket revenue will reach its maximum of 13.8 billion yuan. Our study also indicates that visitors' WTP is significantly influenced by their gender difference, education level, income, number of trips to natural attractions, duration of stay, the intention of a future visit, and concern about commercial exploitation. Our empirical study provides insights into developing effective pricing policies and appropriate marketing strategies for China's new national park system.

Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park has the most representative and largest contiguous tropical rainforest in China, which has advantages in exploring the realization mechanism of ecological product value in national parks. Based on the basic framework of "The Technical Guideline on Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP)", we constructed a GEP accounting system in line with the characteristics of tropical rain forest national park, and calculated the GEP of Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park in 2019. The results showed that the GEP of Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park in 2019 was 204.513 billion yuan, and the GEP per unit area was 0.046 billion yuan·km -2 . Among all the service types, the value of material services was 4.850 billion yuan, accounting for 2.4% of the total GEP in the national park. The ecosystem regulation service value was 168.891 billion yuan, accounting for 82.6%. The value of cultural services was 30.772 billion yuan, accounting for 15.0%. Among different ecosystem types, the unit area value of the tropical rain forest ecosystem represented by mountain rain forest, lowland rain forest, deciduous monsoon forest, and tropical cloud forest was much higher than that of plantation or other ecosystems, indicating the dominant role of tropical rain forest ecosystem in providing ecosystem services. In addition, based on the GEP accounting results of the national park, we put forward relevant suggestions for further exploring the realization path and realization mechanism of ecological product value.

Assessing the health of the ecosystem based on the landscape pattern of national parks can facilitate policy makers in formulating more targeted conservation policies to better manage national park ecosystems. To analyze the landscape patterns and characteristics of the national park, the ecosystem health evaluation index system of the national park was constructed using the vigor-organization-resilience (VOR) model to evaluate the health status. In this study, the Shennongjia National Park in China was selected as a case study area to be assessed using the index system. The results revealed that the patches of construction land and farmland are the largest in number and the most complex in shape, reflecting the obvious fragmentation of construction land and farmland patches. All patch types in this national park were evenly distributed. The results of the analysis showed that the comprehensive index of national park heath, according to the VOR model, is 0.74, indicating that the ecosystems in this study area were in a good state of health. Ecosystems in strictly protected areas of this park had the highest ecosystem health index levels, while the traditional utilization areas had the lowest. Ecosystem health levels were characterized by significant spatial agglomeration characteristics, with high-high aggregation distribution areas, mainly clustered in strictly protected areas, and low-low aggregation distribution, mainly clustered in traditional utilization areas and marginal areas. This study provided a set of ecosystem health assessment systems and their practical use in China's newly established national parks.

• Despite income rising for 37 % of residents, for over 50 % their income did not improve, and it declined for 10 %. • Still, 46 % of respondents held positive perceptions, while just 11 % held negative ones. • Education level and age of residents significantly shaped their perceptions of the park. • Enhancing local residents's sense of participation with no impact perception and considering the needs of people with negative perceptions could promote the realization of a win-win objective. The establishment of national parks in China is attracting widespread attention from conservation scientists and managers. Yet, since most studies have mainly focused on conservation effectiveness, there is insufficient understanding of the socioeconomic outcome of national parks and their perception by local residents. To this end, we conducted a survey in Qianjiangyuan National Park Pilot (QJY) in 2019, one of the most densely populated of China's national park pilots, which was established in 2015. Based on 627 valid questionnaires, our results revealed that 4 years after QJY's establishment, 53 % of respondents experienced no change in their net annual income, for 37 % it rose, while for another 10 % it fell. More than 62 % of QJY's residents described farming or migrant work as their main revenue sources and just 11 % were self-employed. Despite falling short of promoting local incomes for everyone, 46 % respondents nevertheless held positive perceptions of the QJY, whereas only 11 % held negative perceptions; for the rest (43 %), their quality of life was unaffected. Categorical regression and multiple correspondence analyses showed the main demographic factors affecting the residents' perception of QJY were education level and age. This study's findings emphasize that QJY has the potential to achieve win-win conservation objectives, but to fulfill them will require enhancing the sense of participation among locals who perceive themselves negligibly affected, and paying more attention the needs of residents harboring negative perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]