Territorial function and feasibility of the Earth’s Third Pole National Park Cluster

The concept of an Earth’s Third Pole national park cluster has been proposed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and preliminary research for this completed in the initial stage of the second scientific investigation on the plateau. Based on the theory of territorial function, it is realized that with the diversification of land use demand, limited land exerts stronger and stronger binding forces on the allocation of territorial functions. There will be more and more space with complex territorial functions, among which national parks will become a new territorial function for large-scale optimization of the development and protection pattern of land on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. Currently, land development accounts for about 0.08%, of the total area in Tibet, whereas various nature reserves account for 33.9%. There are many problems in protected natural areas, such as overlapping, a large number of settlements there, and the poverty of local farmers and herdsmen. The Qinghai-Tibet plateau has become the only area of deep poverty in China. Because of these problems, four territorial functions of the proposed third pole national park cluster on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau are: Maintaining protection of the global ecological system and the diversity of human civilization and culture; reshaping the main body of the natural protection system; coordinating the human-land coupling system; and supporting sustainable livelihood and high-quality regional development. To fulfill the requirements of forming a national park cluster, this paper explores the selection conditions of potential sites and proposes some innovative evaluation ideas, such as the contribution of alternative sites to the formation of the national park cluster and the integrity of their uniqueness and interaction. Through preliminary evaluation of the representative regional space of different ecosystems provided by ecological and geographical zoning, a draft of the global third pole national park cluster is proposed. It includes 6 flagship national parks, composed of 2 transnational national parks, and 9 national parks. With a land coverage of more than 300000 square kilometers, it will be a focused, large national park cluster, with distinctive ecological characteristics, and outstanding scientific research value for recreation and tourism. Studying the reasonable capacity of national parks (cluster) is the key link in the construction feasibility study. Furthermore, the reasonable capacity calculation is expanded from the natural carrying capacity to that of the facility and the society. Carrying-capacity considerations include the dual requirements of national, and non-national park functions, and from this, a comprehensive carrying capacity calculation model is then established. The concept and algorithm of a comprehensive carrying capacity were initially applied to test the Selincuo-Puruogangri national park alternative. Preliminary results indicated that the daily capacity for tourism should not exceed 7000 people, and the annual capacity should not exceed 800000 people. Results obtained in the extremely fragile natural ecosystems of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in northern Tibet indicate that the establishment of national park cluster there has a high feasibility. The construction of a national park cluster will be a new model of sustainable development for the Qinghai-Tibet plateau region, which will help change the current “transfusion” development model relying on state financial subsidies to farmers and herdsmen. Through subsidizing projects in the construction of national parks, the degree of public participation, the level of services, and also subsidizing the contribution of ecological protection, a “hematopoietic” development model is proposed in which the more you do, the more benefit you get. Finally, a virtual circle of “ecological advantages + assets → ecological products + benefits → sustainable livelihood + development → ecological restoration + value-added” will be realized. With the intensifying of this proposition in the second scientific investigation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a scientific basis for the special sustainable development model of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau will be achieved by the completion of a construction plan of the Earth’s Third Pole national park cluster.