The concept of National Forest Park (NFP) is mainly used in mainland China. Originating in 1982, NFP embodies a “top-down” concept and associated program launched by the Chinese government. It is aimed at promoting forest-based tourism and economic development under the premise of protecting forest resources. After 30 years of development, NFPs have made great achievements in protecting specific forest resources, promoting forest-based tourists, promoting regional economic development, and they have gained popularity worldwide. However, due to the fast pace of NFP expansion, lack of predictable planning and innovative thinking, and ineffective governance, some problems like overexploitation, scenic pollution, monotonous development patterns, and ecological degradation associated with NFP constrain its sustainable development. In order to solve these problems effectively, a holistic review of the status of NFPs in China is needed. To help meet this need, the origin, evolution, and current status of NFPs in China were analyzed. The presented research also included retrospective analyses of challenges and opportunities for NFPs sustainable development in China. Results show that from 1982 to 2015, the number of NFPs grew dramatically, and this development occurred in four phases. In addition, NFP development has been unbalanced in regional distribution. When analyzing the evolution of NFPs, the main issues to date have included failure to implement Master Plans in practice, unclear supervisory responsibilities, ambiguous classification, unbalanced distribution, destruction of natural resource and ecosystems, insufficient cultural protection, weak awareness of nature education, lack of resource statistics, monotonous planning, and weak marketing. Study findings can contribute to promoting the sustainable future development of NFPs and support the forest-based tourism industry.

Bird habitats are becoming increasingly fragmented as a result of rapid urbanization. As one of the essential refuges for urban bird communities, mountain parks are of practical significance for studying the spatial changes of birds, which can inform the future planning of mountain park planning. In this study, we assessed the α, β, and functional diversity of bird communities in mountain parks in Fuzhou, China, at three levels of urbanization (urban, peri-urban, suburban) and explored how diversity (abundance, richness, α-diversity, Chao1) varies along the urbanization gradient. A three-month bird survey was conducted using the transect method to examine the impact of urbanization on bird community structures in mountain parks. In addition, we evaluated the functional diversity of bird guilds in order to identify potential indicator species for monitoring different urbanization gradients in mountain parks. The results showed that: (1) During the three bird surveys from December 2021 to February 2022, 96 bird species and 2429 individuals of 9 orders, 34 families, and 63 genera were identified. (2) Urbanization had a significant impact on the overall bird α-diversity (p = 0.040) and richness (p = 0.024) but not on the overall bird abundance (p = 0.056). (3) The results of non-metric multidimensional scaling showed significant variations among overall birds in mountain parks along with three urbanization levels (stress = 0.155, p = 0.027). Similarly, significant differences were observed in the upper-stratum guild (stress = 0.183, p = 0.049) but not in other diet and vertical foraging stratum guilds. (4) Five species were identified as potential candidates for monitoring the trends of urban gradients. Moreover, compared to insectivorous or omnivorous guilds, most carnivorous and herbivorous guilds may not be suitable for monitoring the negative effects of urbanization in mountain parks. Our findings can help inform urban mountain park management or restoration strategies intended to mitigate the adverse impacts of urbanization.

Urban parks, as critical components of the urban green space, have practical significance in studying the influence of landscape characteristics on birds. Nine urban parks in Fuzhou, China, were used as study objects to explore the influence of landscape features (patch, landscape, and surrounding environment indices) on bird communities. The results showed that (1) from December 2021 to February 2022, we found a total of 2874 individuals belonging to 61 species of 9 orders, 32 families, which were dominated by the birds of Passeriformes (37 species of 24 families, accounting for 89.91% of the total number of individuals) and resident birds in Fuzhou urban parks (n = 30; 85.46%); (2) The park area, park perimeter, woodland area, grassland area, and the park shape index increased as the distance to the city center increases; (3) Bird diversity responds differently to different landscape features. The total abundance of birds, the abundance of winter migrant birds, and the richness of winter migrant birds increased with the park area. And the park shape index affects positively for the the α-diversity of birds and the abundance of resident birds. Woodland proportion and waterbody shape index affected positively on the richness and α-diversity of resident birds. To promote the diversity of regional birds, it is recommended that the construction and planning of urban parks should enlarge the park area as much as possible, increase the proportion of woodland, and make shorelines more irregular. Our study could serve as a reference for the construction of biodiversity enhancements in core green areas of urban parks.

We explored the spatial and temporal characteristics of the urban forest area soundscape by setting up monitoring points (70 × 70 m grid) covering the study area, recorded a total of 52 sound sources, and the results showed that: (1) The soundscape composition of the park is dominated by natural sounds and recreational sounds. (2) The diurnal variation of sound sources is opposite to that of temperature, 6:00–9:00 is the best time for the public to perceive birdsong, and after 18:00, the park is dominated by insect chirps. (3) The PSD (power spectral density) and the SDI (soundscape diversity index) of the park are greatly affected by public recreation behaviors, and some recreation behaviors may affect the vocal behavior of organisms such as birds. (4) Spaces with high canopy density can attract more birdsong and recreational sounds in summer, and the combination of “tree + lake” can attract more birdsong. Vegetation has a significant dampening effect on traffic sound. (5) Landscape spatial elements, such as the proportion of hard ground, sky, trees, and shrubs, have a significant impact on changes in the PSD, the SDI and different kinds of sound sources. The research results provide effective data support for improving the soundscape of urban forests.

The urbanization process has contributed to the deterioration of the urban thermal environment and increased the frequency of heat waves in summer that damage public health. Urban green space is the space for the public to escape the summer heat. The cooling effect of urban green space (UGS) can encourage outdoor activities and enhance public health. Analysis of when and how the public utilizes UGS under summer heat can serve as a guide for UGS improvements. In this study, the Hot Spring Park in Fuzhou City, China was utilized as a case study to examine the characteristics of the public recreational behaviors and their influencing factors under summer heat. Results showed the following observations: (1) Canopy density and turf coverage played key roles in regulating the thermal environment. (2) UGS can accommodate multiple summertime behaviors with considerable spatiotemporal variations. (3) In the hot summer, the frequency of recreational activities in UGS was negatively correlated with temperature. Dynamic behaviors were significantly impacted by temperature. Older and younger groups were less heat-tolerant. Based on this, we propose countermeasures and suggestions that are tailored to the needs of urban residents and their behavior characteristics for the planning and management of urban parks in the summer heat.