迎接国家公园时代的到来——整合科研资源，建构国家公园学

2021年可谓是中国的国家公园建设元年，这一年中国政府对外正式宣布建立国家公园。从世界范围来看，虽然国家公园本身已不是新鲜事物，但国家公园体制在中国的建立却是一件大事。这一重要事件的发生标志着中国自然保护事业从此步入一个全新的发展阶段，同时，也意味着中国国家公园时代的真正到来。为了迎接国家公园时代的到来，笔者从国家公园起步阶段的研究和实践角度提出几点个人看法与疑问，以就正于读者。

需要强调的是，目前国内关于国家公园的科研积累还不够，研究进展远远落后于现实发展，现有关于国家公园的研究仅是“冰山一角”，在理论层面的研究尤其缺乏。试问，国家公园研究究竟是属于生态学还是属于管理科学范畴？国家公园研究的理论基础到底是什么？中国国家公园的建设模式具体是什么样的？国际上的国家公园理念如何与中国的自然保护现状与实际情况相结合？诸如此类的问题尚且经不起拷问，统一的答案也显得较为苍白。在各个保护理论研究中，已有研究者从自然保护思想变迁中的人地关系、关注生态本身的保护生物学以及加强人与自然生态系统综合管理的人类与自然耦合系统理论及其适应性管理方法论等角度来解释现阶段中国国家公园建设的理论依据和实践途径，但这些研究也仅仅处于探索阶段。

众所周知，当前中国构建的以国家公园为主体的自然保护地体系在整体上分为三大类，即国家公园、自然保护区和自然公园。那么需要思考的问题是：中国新型自然保护地体系进行分类分级的理论依据是什么？如今，新型自然保护地体系的重心已从过去的以自然保护区为基础转移到以国家公园为主体，国家公园、自然保护区和自然公园三者的关系是什么？都需要进行具体和详细的回答。

在当前推进的工作中，国家林业和草原局制定了《国家公园空间布局方案》，该方案将遴选出一定数量的国家公园候选区。但是，它不同于以往研究中独立进行、不尽相同的自然地理区划或生态区划方案，而是从国家层面上统一提出，在国土空间上划分自然生态地理区划单元即自然生态地理区，并在此基础上识别自然保护关键区域，以此布局国家公园候选区。但人们更关心的问题是：方案中，国家公园的布局依据有哪些？具体数量是如何确定的？其数量和面积有没有阈值或范围要求？其布局是否与中国国土景观风貌或景观特征相协调？未来是否会适当调整？这些问题还都无法确定。

目前，国家公园体制正处于起步阶段，制度和机制的分类、确定和建立是最重要的话题之一。各种制度和机制中，例如始创设立、规划设计、生态系统管理、自然资源产权、全民共享、特许经营、公众参与、社区协调、监测评估及资金保障等，它们分别是如何建立和实施的？它们之间如何协调？这些都是事关国家公园战略目标有效落地、区域经济社会可持续发展的关键内容。

总的来说，国家公园研究分为宏观、中观和微观3个层面。宏观层面是指国家公园体制的发展战略和决策体系，核心内容为建立以国家公园为主体的自然保护地治理体系。目前，国家正在制订的《国家公园法》《自然保护地法》等法律法规以及相关政策均属于这一层面。中观层面则指国家公园建设的理论研究和实践探索，主要内容为人类与自然耦合系统理论和生态系统管理途径，人类与自然耦合系统理论也是今后国家公园生态系统管理的重要理论基础。微观层面是指国家公园生态系统适应性管理的路径选择，针对单体国家公园生态系统功能和区域可持续发展需要建立可实现的适应性管理目标，并通过科学的管理、监测和调控活动以满足国家公园生态系统容量和区域社会经济需求变化。

笔者认为，国家公园的研究对象是一个复杂、动态的人类与自然耦合系统，涉及一系列生态、社会和经济等不确定难题，它既不属于生态学，也不属于管理科学，而是属于交叉学科的研究范畴，所以仅从单一学科视角展开讨论无法涵盖国家公园的所有研究内容，也无法为具体的工作实践提供强有力的理论支撑。因此，整合现有科研资源，建构一个综合性质的且集合各个单一学科研究优势的交叉学科——国家公园学，迫在眉睫，势在必行。

Paving the Way to the Era of National Park: To Construct the National Park Studies by Integrating Scientific Research Resources

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