The Law of Nature Reserve entered the legislation process of the 10th National People's Congress. It will be drafted by the Environment and Resource Committee of the NPC and finally submitted to the Standing Committee of the NPC to be approved. Currently a couple of ministries including The State Environmental Protection Administration, The State Forestry Administration and The Ministry of Construction are responsible for the establishment and management of nature reserve in China. They all want to be solely responsible for the management of nature reserves. The State Environmental Protection Administration funded Beijing University to draft the law of nature reserve two years ago and The State Forestry Administration also entrusted the Forestry Academy to draft the law.

The Environment and Resource Committee of the NPC, by entrusting a non-government organization this time other than a state ministry to make the research work for the legislation of nature reserve, aims to ensure the fairness and impartiality of the legislation and the healthy development of nature reserve. The existing problems of nature reserves in China will be found and reasonable suggestion be put forward to facilitate the drafting of the law. The project will provide legislators with the experiences and lessons of nature reserve law drafting from abroad as well as related law materials to ensure the reasonability and democracy during the process of law drafting.

Currently the natural areas that need to be protected in China are managed by multiple administrations. The nature reserves are managed by environmental protection administration, scenic spots by construction administration, national park and panda nature reserve by forestry administration, and seaside mangrove forest by ocean administration. The multiple-management situation has its reasons, but meanwhile lots of problems. Different countries have different laws or regulations of nature reserve. The project will investigate and analyze some typical nature reserves, the foundation of the nature reserve laws and their enforcement situation. The laws will be then classified and assessed. Thus the investigation of some successful nature reserve laws and their enforcement should be included in the project. However, the investigation will not focus on the nature reserves themselves, but on the legislation management of nature reserve. The members of the delegation will not only include the managers of the nature reserves, but also the experts and related government officials who will participate in the drafting of the nature reserve law. They are supposed to find out what type of legislation and management will fit the characteristics of China.

We are going to summarize the foreign policies, laws and regulations on natural reserve in order to acquire the successful experiences of nature reserve management. In the mean time, the current situation on natural reserve in China will be assessed so as to find the major problems. The trends of natural reserves management in china will be found by means of case study and workshop. Based on the comparison of management approaches and their effects from foreign and national natural reserve, the importance and feasibility of the legislation on natural reserve in China will be emphasized. The project will provide pertinent scientific basis for the legislation on natural reserve.

A consultant group, made up of government officials, experts and scholars in related fields, and a project team will be formed. SNISD will be responsible for the implementation of the project and the project team will be made up of program officers from SNISD, The World Wide Found , The Nature Conservancy, The State Forestry Administration, The State Environmental Protection Administration, The Ministry of Agriculture, The Ministry of Construction and local nature reserves.
This project is sponsored by The World Wide Found, The Nature Conservancy , and U.S. Embassy.