Ziyuan Kexue (Aug 2023)
Rewilding in China’s ecological protection and restoration: A test based on the TSD model
Abstract
[Objective] Rewilding is regarded as an important tool for ecological protection and restoration. It is necessary to further explore new concepts and methods of ecological conservation and restoration based on rewilding at the landscape scale, and to examine the important value of rewilding for ecological conservation and restoration at the macro scale. [Methods] Using verified case study, we examined the applicability of the TSD model of rewilding in China’s ecological protection and restoration through a combination of quantitative comparison and qualitative analysis based on 802 policy texts from 1992-2022, and discussed China’s unique institutional design for ecological protection and restoration. [Results] We found that: (1) The objectives of the TSD model and the three theoretical elements are validated in Chinese ecological protection and restoration. The objectives include “self-sustaining of complex ecosystems” and “ecological function and experience”, and the three theoretical elements are “trophic complexity”, “stochastic disturbance”, and “dispersal”. (2) According to the horizontal comparison test of basic elements, the goal setting of China’s ecological protection and restoration does not pay enough attention to “ecological function and experience”, the theoretical elements focus primarily on “trophic complexity” and “stochastic disturbances” but not “dispersal”. (3) Longitudinal comparative test of element evolution showed that the goal of ecological protection and restoration has been extended from land withdrawal to developing the life community of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts. The three theoretical elements also changed from species range expansion to reintroduction, from core land conservation to protected areas network reconstruction, and from human-induced to nature-induced changes. [Conclusion] The rewilding TSD model is applicable to ecological conservation and restoration in China, and its applicability is closely related to the fact that China’s ecological conservation and restoration policy is rooted in land use change. Unlike North America’s emphasis on the introduction of large mammals and Europe’s passive management of abandoned land, China advocates embedding ecological protection and restoration in land use change, emphasising managed and active human retreat from productive lands, which is a Chinese-style institutional design that is appropriate to national conditions.
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