Abstract:
Based on the chain of "ecosystem resources-ecosystem assets-ecosystem products", the concept of national park Eco-Assets Management is proposed for the national park system. In essence, Eco-Assets Management is about using Eco-Assets as a link, integrating natural ecosystems and socio-economic systems as a whole, implementing comprehensive as well as integrative management, and cultivating a green feature for high-quality development. Indeed, a crucial institutional arrangement for the national park system reform is to include national parks and the natural resources within their boundaries into the assets category. Eco-Assets of national parks, characterized by ecology, importance, public welfare and publicity, integrity, sustainability and public participation, have the attributes of scarcity, value and belongingness of general assets. The ultimate goal of national park Eco-Assets Management is to establish a unified management system based on the property rights system for natural resources. While serving the purpose of managing park assets, the introduction of national park Eco-Assets Management embodies the significance of protecting nationally representative ecosystems. The Eco-assets Management for national parks includes several key aspects: safeguarding national ecological security, establishing a principal-agent mechanism for state-owned natural resource asset ownership, steadily advancing the reform of protected land use rights, enforcing comprehensive land use regulation, innovating the franchise system for Eco-Assets, improving ecological conservation compensation mechanism, and establishing the monitoring and evaluating system for Eco-Assets. By upholding the principle of ecological priority, it is possible to achieve a synergistic promotion of carbon reduction, pollution abatement, green growth, and economic development in the construction, management, and protection of national parks. At the same time, comprehensive and systematic national park Eco-Assets Management is conductive to effectively promoting the sustained preservation and appreciation of natural resource assets. However, the current national park Eco-Assets Management is faced with numerous challenges, such as inadequate management system, unclear property rights, and protection-utilization imbalance. The key to innovation in national park Eco-Assets Management is establishing a mechanism for sustained preservation and appreciation of natural resource assets, and scientifically categorizing Eco-Assets of national parks according to ecological value and conservation intensity based on the natural ecosystem characteristics, the Eco-Assets endowments and their intrinsic rules, as well as the objectives and effectiveness of management. Apart from that, the following innovative suggestions have been proposed for national park Eco-Assets Management. First, the legal framework for national park Eco-Assets Management should be constructed to improve the management system. Second, the institutional framework for national park Eco-Assets Management should be optimized, and its effectiveness should be evaluated. Third, the principal-agent mechanism for state-owned natural resource asset ownership should be established to realize the value of ecosystem assets.