Biodiv Sci ›› 2021, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (12): 1583-1590.  DOI: 10.17520/biods.2021364

• Special Feature: National Key Protected Wild Plants • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Analysis and suggestions on policies and regulations on conservation and management of wild plants in China

Zhihua Zhou1,*(), Xiaohua Jin2   

  1. 1 Department of Wildlife Conservation, National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Beijing 100714
    2 State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093
  • Received:2021-09-09 Accepted:2021-12-01 Online:2021-12-20 Published:2021-12-08
  • Contact: Zhihua Zhou

Abstract:

Aims: China is the home to the world’s second-richest flora with approximately 36,000-41,000 species of higher plants. Plant conservation has reached great achievements in the last 40 years, especially with the publications of Regulation on Conservation of Wild Plants of China and the List of National Key Protected Wild Plants. These publications were issued by the central government two decades ago and recently have been amended with updates. Many national nature reserves and botanical gardens have been established to protect the national diversity of plant species, which formalized the in situ and ex situ conservation network. However, there are notable gaps between the conservation needs and the legitimate base in the new era of ecological civilization construction. This review surveys the achievements within botanical conservation and illustrates the gaps in policies and regulations on plant conservation in China. Congruently, we propose suggestions for revising the Regulation on Conservation of Wild Plants of China.
Methods: We summarized the current conservation and management policies on wild plants in China and analyzed the central policies and measures from three facets, e.g., in situ conservation, ex situ conservation, and management on exploitation and utilization. The advantages and disadvantages of these policies and regulations have been analyzed and compared with wild animal management. Furthermore, relevant suggestions to revise the Regulation on Conservation of Wild Plants of China have been provided.
Results: Our analyses indicated the revision of Regulation on Conservation of Wild Plants of China needs to be expedited to enhance in situ and ex situ conservation, including revising the definition of the term “wild plants” and “artificial propagation” to improve the management procedure for exploitation, to enhance the connection between international laws and domestic laws, and to refine the punishment rules.

Key words: national key protected wild plants, conservation policy, Regulation on Conservation of Wild Plants of China, revision suggestion