Chinese National Parks in Jiří Mánek's Documents

In the penultimate week of November, the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Prague hosted a small feast not only for nature lovers: the premiere of a shortened version of three documentary films about Chinese national parks. They were created by Jiří Mánek, a nature conservation expert and former director of Šumava National Park, together with the Czech department of the China Media Group.

In his opening remarks, His Excellency Feng Biao, Ambassador of the PRC to the Czech Republic, China's environmental policy. The most populous country in the world has declared the so-called "green economy". Goals 2060 consisting of a carbon peak in 2030 and a gradual transition to full carbon neutrality by 2060. The environmental strategy has several pillars, in particular intensive development and application of sustainable energy technologies.

Installed electricity generation capacity from renewable sources so last year exceeded the capacity of coal-fired power plants. In the first quarter of this year, the Newly installed RES capacity 76.75 million kW, which represents year-on-year increase of 21 % a green technologies already form around 90 % of all installations.

A systematic approach to nature conservation

Other pillars of China's green policy are the promotion of electromobility, massive expansion of forested areas, the establishment of wetlands and a systematic, comprehensive approach to nature conservation. This is best illustrated by Opening of five national parks in 2021. As he explained to the audience Jiří Mánek, the five protected areas together cover more than 230 000 km², which is more than the total area of all 67 national parks in the USA.

Jiří Mánek took the viewers of the November screening on a trip to three of these five parks with a camera and a small crew. This was often limited to a Czech naturalist and local guides or park rangers, with whom Jiří Mánek has developed strong friendships.
In an unusually warm atmosphere he described his impressions and the view of a lifelong professional conservationist on the establishment and management of national parks. Specifically National Park for the Ussuri tiger and Amur leopard, National Park for the Conservation of Giant Pandas in Sichuan Province and Sanjiangyuan National Park (literally „three springs of rivers“). The latter is the source of the three most important East Asian rivers: the Long River (Yangtze), the longest river in Asia, the Yellow River (Huanghe, Huang-che) and the Mekong.

Local communities and technology

The Chinese authorities are trying to involve members of local communities in conservation as much as possible. Local people have lived in harmony with nature for generations and are therefore recruited as experienced guides and rangers. Another trump card of nature reserve management is modern technology. For example, active RFID chips, which are used to mark wild animals, remotely report the exact location and movement of big cats or pandas. Thanks to accurate identification and monitoring, it is possible to adapt various processes and assess the impact of habitat protection on animal populations. Thus, it has been found that in a relatively short period of time, the ranges of the critically endangered Ussuri tigers have stabilised and their numbers have begun to increase rapidly.

Ecological civilization

Perhaps the most powerful moment of the documentary was the filmmakers' encounter with the giant pandas. One of China's national symbols is also the face World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The logo was created in 1961 when the giant panda was chosen as the globally recognizable symbol of the endangered animal. The panda has become a symbol not only for WWF, but for the entire conservation movement.

It is here that China brings not the strict isolation of reserves, but the principle of people living together in harmony with nature. This concept has been given the name in China „ecological civilization“ and is explained as the so-called the middle path.

„The middle path is conceptually simple but philosophically profound and has the potential to transform the approach to conservation in the Western world, which often violently perceives humans and nature as opposing forces. In this respect, contemporary China and its direction in conservation could be a worthy partner, perhaps even an example, for us.“ said Jiří Mánek in his contribution.

In conclusion, let us add that Jiří Mánek is finishing the final two parts of the intended a pentalogy about Chinese national parks. They'll be out next year and will bring the national park closer to Protective Hainan tropical rainforest a Wuyishan Park. As for the development of parks in China, it has a total of 49 national parks by 2035, the intended total area is 1.1 million km². This represents 18 % of China's land area. Such a proportion of protected areas is unprecedented around the world.

Mikulas Cerny