2021年可謂是中國的國家公園建設(shè)元年,這一年中國政府對外正式宣布建立國家公園。從世界范圍來看,雖然國家公園本身已不是新鮮事物,但國家公園體制在中國的建立卻是一件大事。這一重要事件的發(fā)生標(biāo)志著中國自然保護事業(yè)從此步入一個全新的發(fā)展階段,同時,也意味著中國國家公園時代的真正到來。為了迎接國家公園時代的到來,筆者從國家公園起步階段的研究和實踐角度提出幾點個人看法與疑問,以就正于讀者。
需要強調(diào)的是,目前國內(nèi)關(guān)于國家公園的科研積累還不夠,研究進(jìn)展遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)落后于現(xiàn)實發(fā)展,現(xiàn)有關(guān)于國家公園的研究僅是“冰山一角”,在理論層面的研究尤其缺乏。試問,國家公園研究究竟是屬于生態(tài)學(xué)還是屬于管理科學(xué)范疇?國家公園研究的理論基礎(chǔ)到底是什么?中國國家公園的建設(shè)模式具體是什么樣的?國際上的國家公園理念如何與中國的自然保護現(xiàn)狀與實際情況相結(jié)合?諸如此類的問題尚且經(jīng)不起拷問,統(tǒng)一的答案也顯得較為蒼白。在各個保護理論研究中,已有研究者從自然保護思想變遷中的人地關(guān)系、關(guān)注生態(tài)本身的保護生物學(xué)以及加強人與自然生態(tài)系統(tǒng)綜合管理的人類與自然耦合系統(tǒng)理論及其適應(yīng)性管理方法論等角度來解釋現(xiàn)階段中國國家公園建設(shè)的理論依據(jù)和實踐途徑,但這些研究也僅僅處于探索階段。
眾所周知,當(dāng)前中國構(gòu)建的以國家公園為主體的自然保護地體系在整體上分為三大類,即國家公園、自然保護區(qū)和自然公園。那么需要思考的問題是:中國新型自然保護地體系進(jìn)行分類分級的理論依據(jù)是什么?如今,新型自然保護地體系的重心已從過去的以自然保護區(qū)為基礎(chǔ)轉(zhuǎn)移到以國家公園為主體,國家公園、自然保護區(qū)和自然公園三者的關(guān)系是什么?都需要進(jìn)行具體和詳細(xì)的回答。
在當(dāng)前推進(jìn)的工作中,國家林業(yè)和草原局制定了《國家公園空間布局方案》,該方案將遴選出一定數(shù)量的國家公園候選區(qū)。但是,它不同于以往研究中獨立進(jìn)行、不盡相同的自然地理區(qū)劃或生態(tài)區(qū)劃方案,而是從國家層面上統(tǒng)一提出,在國土空間上劃分自然生態(tài)地理區(qū)劃單元即自然生態(tài)地理區(qū),并在此基礎(chǔ)上識別自然保護關(guān)鍵區(qū)域,以此布局國家公園候選區(qū)。但人們更關(guān)心的問題是:方案中,國家公園的布局依據(jù)有哪些?具體數(shù)量是如何確定的?其數(shù)量和面積有沒有閾值或范圍要求?其布局是否與中國國土景觀風(fēng)貌或景觀特征相協(xié)調(diào)?未來是否會適當(dāng)調(diào)整?這些問題還都無法確定。
目前,國家公園體制正處于起步階段,制度和機制的分類、確定和建立是最重要的話題之一。各種制度和機制中,例如始創(chuàng)設(shè)立、規(guī)劃設(shè)計、生態(tài)系統(tǒng)管理、自然資源產(chǎn)權(quán)、全民共享、特許經(jīng)營、公眾參與、社區(qū)協(xié)調(diào)、監(jiān)測評估及資金保障等,它們分別是如何建立和實施的?它們之間如何協(xié)調(diào)?這些都是事關(guān)國家公園戰(zhàn)略目標(biāo)有效落地、區(qū)域經(jīng)濟社會可持續(xù)發(fā)展的關(guān)鍵內(nèi)容。
總的來說,國家公園研究分為宏觀、中觀和微觀3個層面。宏觀層面是指國家公園體制的發(fā)展戰(zhàn)略和決策體系,核心內(nèi)容為建立以國家公園為主體的自然保護地治理體系。目前,國家正在制訂的《國家公園法》《自然保護地法》等法律法規(guī)以及相關(guān)政策均屬于這一層面。中觀層面則指國家公園建設(shè)的理論研究和實踐探索,主要內(nèi)容為人類與自然耦合系統(tǒng)理論和生態(tài)系統(tǒng)管理途徑,人類與自然耦合系統(tǒng)理論也是今后國家公園生態(tài)系統(tǒng)管理的重要理論基礎(chǔ)。微觀層面是指國家公園生態(tài)系統(tǒng)適應(yīng)性管理的路徑選擇,針對單體國家公園生態(tài)系統(tǒng)功能和區(qū)域可持續(xù)發(fā)展需要建立可實現(xiàn)的適應(yīng)性管理目標(biāo),并通過科學(xué)的管理、監(jiān)測和調(diào)控活動以滿足國家公園生態(tài)系統(tǒng)容量和區(qū)域社會經(jīng)濟需求變化。
筆者認(rèn)為,國家公園的研究對象是一個復(fù)雜、動態(tài)的人類與自然耦合系統(tǒng),涉及一系列生態(tài)、社會和經(jīng)濟等不確定難題,它既不屬于生態(tài)學(xué),也不屬于管理科學(xué),而是屬于交叉學(xué)科的研究范疇,所以僅從單一學(xué)科視角展開討論無法涵蓋國家公園的所有研究內(nèi)容,也無法為具體的工作實踐提供強有力的理論支撐。因此,整合現(xiàn)有科研資源,建構(gòu)一個綜合性質(zhì)的且集合各個單一學(xué)科研究優(yōu)勢的交叉學(xué)科——國家公園學(xué),迫在眉睫,勢在必行。
As Chinese government officially announced the program for establishment of national parks in 2021, the year 2021 may be described as the first year of the era of national park in China. Although national parks are not new in the world, the establishment of a national park system in China is an important event, which signals a brand new development stage of China’s nature conservation and the actual arrival of the era of national park in China. For the purpose of paving the way to the era of national park, I would like to present several opinions and questions in terms of the initial research and practice regarding national parks and expect to receive the comments and responses from the readers.
It should be emphasized that the accumulation of scientific research on national parks in China is still insufficient, the progress of research is far behind the actual development course, and the existing research on national parks has only touched the “tip of the iceberg”, especially at the theoretical level. I would like to ask, whether the research on national park belongs to ecology or management science? What exactly is the theoretical basis for national park researches? What is the specific construction mode of China’s national parks? How does the international concept of national parks fit into the existing situation of nature conservation in China? These questions remain to be explored and discussed comprehensively. Among various studies on the theories of nature conservation, some have been conducted for the purpose of explaining the theoretical basis and practical approaches with regard to current construction of national parks in China from the perspectives of man-land relationship in the evolution of nature conservation ideology, conservation biology focusing on ecology and the theory of coupled human and natural system and its adaptive management methodology to strengthen the integrated management of human-nature ecosystem, but these studies are only at the exploratory stage.
It is well known that, the Chinese government is establishing a protected areas system with national parks as the mainstay which consists of three parts, namely national parks, nature reserves and natural parks.The issue that needs to be considered is: what is the theoretical basis for the classification for the new system of protected areas in China? Considering the focus of the new system of protected areas has shifted from the nature reserves that were the foundation of the system in the past to the national parks regarded as the mainstay today, what is the relationship among the national parks, nature reserves and natural parks? These questions need specific and detailed answers.
For advancing the process of relevant work, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration has formulated and published theSpatial Layout Scheme of National Parks, based on which a group of national park candidates will be selected out. Different from the physical geographical regionalization or ecological regionalization,which were proposed independently and differently in previous studies,theSpatial Layout Scheme of National Parksis a unified plan raised at the national level for defining the unit of physical eco-geographical regionalization, namely eco-geographical region, which is the basis for identifying the key areas for nature conservation, so as to layout national park candidates. But the questions people more concern about are:which basis are provided for the layout of national parks in the scheme mentioned above? How is the specific number of the national parks determined? Is there any threshold or requirement with respect to the number and area of the national parks? Is the layout of the national parks harmonious with the landscape features or characteristics of China’s land space? Will the layout be appropriately adjusted in the future? These are the questions to be addressed.
Currently, National Park System is in the start-up stage; so the classification, determination and establishment of related systems and mechanisms are some of the most crucial topics. How will various systems and mechanisms, involving founding, planning, ecosystem management, property rights of natural resources, universal sharing,franchising, public participation, community coordination, monitoring and evaluation and financial security etc., established and implemented?And how will the systems and mechanisms be coordinated? These are all the vital tasks for fulfilling the strategic objectives of national parks and sustainable development of regional economy and society.
Generally, the researches on national parks can be divided into 3 levels: macroscopic, mesoscopic and microscopic level. The macroscopic level means the development strategy and decisionmaking system of the National Park System, of which the core is to build up a management system of protected areas with national parks as the mainstay. At present, the laws and regulations including theLaw of National ParksandLaw of Protected Areasand relevant policies all of which are in the process of establishment belong to this level. The mesoscopic level refers to the theoretical research and practical exploration regarding the construction of national parks,mainly including the theories of coupled human and natural system and ecosystem management approaches. The theories of coupled human and natural system also will be the important theory basis of the management on the ecosystem of national parks in the future. The microscopic level means the path selection for the adaptive management of national park ecosystems, the establishment of achievable adaptive management objectives according to the ecosystem functions of individual national parks and the demand of regional sustainable development, and scientific management, monitoring and regulation to meet changes regarding the ecosystem capacity of national parks and the demand of regional society and economy.
In my opinion, the subject of the studies on national parks is a complex and dynamic coupled human and natural system, involving a series of uncertain issues with regard to ecology, society and economy,and these studies are not merely in the range of ecology or management science, but that of the interdisciplinary research; therefore the discussions from the perspective of a single discipline can neither cover all research aspects of national parks nor provide the powerful theoretical basis to the concrete work. In conclusion, it is urgent and imperative to integrate the existing scientific research resources into constructing a comprehensive and interdisciplinary science — National Park Studies, with the research advantages of all disciplines concerned.
Director of the National Park Research Center,
Beijing Forestry University: Professor ZHANG Yujun
June 24, 2022