Current status and recent trends in financing China’s nature reserves

Many studies conducted a decade ago indicated that funding shortages were a major constraint on the effective management of China’s nature reserves. However, with the rapid growth of China’s economy, both the number of reserves and the corresponding financing of reserves have greatly increased. Based on data from a questionnaire survey conducted in 2011 at 47 national-level nature reserves (NNRs), we analyzed the financing of China’s NNRs and compared it with six Southeast Asian countries. From secondary data, we also estimated the changes in the financing of NNRs and the changes in the government investment in nature reserves (NRs) at all levels. The findings revealed that operational expenditures in China’s NNRs were 5.19 USD/ha in 2009, ranking second among the seven countries in the survey and ranking third after adjustments for per capita gross domestic product. The total investment in NNRs increased by a factor of 2.3 over 1999 levels and reached 5.50 USD/ha in 2009. From 1994 to 2005, government investment in nature reserves at all levels increased by a factor of 1.4. The financing of China’s nature reserves has improved in general, and future investment should be more specifically targeted at NRs facing financial hardships.