Biodiversity Conservation and Protected Areas in China: Science, Law and the Obdurate Party-State

Abstract

The recent increase in scholarly and other professional interest in environmental policy in China is quite remarkable. It is almost as remarkable as the persistent inability of that literature, despite the generally high quality, impressive disciplinary range, and diverse national origins of the contributions, to settle on any clear or widely shared understanding of how environmental policy in China works, or why it works the way it does. The essay reviews recent important contributions to the literature.

Keywords: biodiversity conservation, China, protected areas

JEL Classification: K32