國家公園體制(guójiā gōngyuán tǐzhì): National parks plan

On Tuesday, China released an overall plan on national parks to protect the country's natural beauty, demanding the strictest protection for its national parks. It also aims to build a unified management system by 2020 and to significantly enhance its efficiency by 2030.

The plan came a year after China piloted 10 national parks across the country, some of which are designed to protect endangered species while others are dedicated to preserving important heritage such as the Great Wall or local ecological systems. To avoid such parks from becoming amusement parks or tourist resorts due to profitability-driven administration, their management will be in the hands of the central government.

In other words, activities that risk compromising the ecosystem in a national park will be prohibited, and practices including unauthorized mining, discharging pollutants or poaching will be punished.

A streamlined management mechanism is called for to keep at bay overlapped management and lax supervision since national parks could span the jurisdiction of different cities even provinces.