Adapting conservation easement to Chinese conservation context: from theory to practice

Conservation easements (CEs) are efficient conservation tools to coordinate public-private interests. As China establishes a new national park system, CEs have been tested as a potential solution to the conservation-development trade-off in populated rural areas where collective forestland rights emerge as a major concern. However, limited research exists on their adaptability in China's National Park context. This study employs a qualitative approach to examine CEs' utility in forest management through theory and in practice in the Qianjiangyuan National Park Pilot (QNP). Through a necessity and feasibility assessment framework and structured interviews with key informants, findings indicate that CEs represent a promising conservation tool for achieving conservation targets by easing human pressures while maintaining land ownership and use rights at low cost under complex land tenure. Local governance, non-governmental organisations' participation, academic involvement, protected area management, and community governance were all identified as contributing factors for CE feasibility, with importance decreasing in that order. Further semi-structured interviews with qualitative content analysis revealed that the park agency prioritised CE's necessity for land tenure issues, particularly its cooperation with local governments to leverage a policy window for unified land management rather than state-owned land transformation. This cooperation emerged as a key condition for local CE adaptation. The study concludes that multi-stakeholder collaboration is essential to develop CE as a science-based land management tool that maximises its “minimum restriction for maximum comprehensive benefit” role.