Designing policies for the sustainable development of social-ecological systems with complex human–land relations requires integrated management and nexus thinking; China’s national parks are typical social-ecological systems. Ecosystem services and community livelihood are two essential components of sustainable management in the nature–community nexus (NCN). This study focuses on the Qianjiangyuan National Park Pilot Area in eastern China. Following a systems approach and integrating qualitative (causal analysis and systems but dynamic methods) and quantitative (InVEST model, Spearman’s correlation analysis, regression analysis, and multiple correspondence analysis) methods, we developed two causal mechanisms linking livelihood assets and ecosystem services, and verified them by exploring multi-dimensional linkages and revealing two types of NCNs. Results showed that the proportions of cropland and orchard areas have significant negative correlations with water and soil retention services, respectively, while forests significantly benefit both services. A positive NCN exists in areas where water and soil retention services perform well and the local community develops vibrantly with a considerable proportion of young, highly educated, or high-income (especially the income from secondary industries) residents. A negative NCN is seen in areas where the water and soil retention services values are low; a great many households do not have substantial income from secondary and tertiary industries, and few households have vast forest areas. These results can be used as scientific evidence for optimizing institutional arrangements and contributing to sustainable and harmonious development of national parks in China.

A healthy park-people relation depends essentially on the fair and sustainable maintenance of rural livelihood. When protected area is designated, rural people may face restrictions of access to land and resource use for multiple ecosystem services. In Wuyishan of China, we analysed the role of traditional tea cultivation during consistent protected area management to find ways to maintain stability of this social-ecological system in the new national park era. We used an intensive social survey to investigate tea’s role, perception of ecosystem services and impacts on tea cultivation from consistent conservation policies. Results showed that tea cultivation brought major household income and associated with multiple culture services. Protected area management affected land use and conservation outcomes were more obvious to farmers than economic and social ones. From the perspective of a social-ecological system, tea cultivation in national should be conservation-compatible activities from which the potentially lost economic value is remedied by ecological and cultural valorisation. To sustain the resilience of the social-ecological system, we proposed a three-scale management framework to regulate biophysical elements at land plot scale, to link production and market at the mountain level, and to secure tenure and encourage community participation at the landscape level.

The construction of nature reserve system with national parks as the main body is a major initiative to implement the idea of ecological civilization, and an important practice area for Chinese modernization of harmonious coexistence between human beings and nature, and thus has received multidisciplinary attention from ecology, geography, economics, law, sociology and other disciplines. In order to coordinate the human-land relationship and garden-land relationship of the nature reserve system, and to promote the theoretical innovation, governance optimization and upgrading of the legal system guarantee in the construction of China's nature reserve system, we have invited eight experts in the nature reserve related fields to carry out interviews. The interviews focused on four aspects, namely, Chinese modernization, innovation of theoretical system and methods, legal system guarantee and international compliance, with the theoretical understanding and practical innovation of the governance of China's nature reserve system as the core, and explored several aspects of the construction of the nature reserve system with national parks as the main body: the understanding of the complex human-land and garden-land relations and its complexity coping strategy; the management efficiency of the nature reserve system; the strategy of improving the management efficiency of the nature reserve system; how the construction of China's nature reserve system can demonstrate the advantages of Chinese modernization by linking it with the implementation tasks of important international conventions; and the innovative role of the legal system in coordinating the relationship between people and land, and the relationship between parks and the land. Summarizing the main views of the experts, we can draw the main conclusions: (1) The construction of the nature reserve system, with national parks as the main body, needs to respond to the governance requirements of the Chinese modernization of the interaction between human beings and nature, which is a harmonious coexistence of human beings and nature, in the aspects of maintaining national ecological security, guaranteeing the supply of high-quality ecological products, as well as coordinating the relationship between the reserves and their surroundings, in order to achieve the unity of "ecological protection, green development and improvement of people's livelihoods". (2) Coordinating the relationship between people and land is the key to promoting the modernization of the governance of national parks, focusing on the three core issues of the relationship between people and land, the relationship between parks and land and the synergy of the inter-provincial level, and defining China's national parks governance model as "integrated governance based on the synergy between the central government and the local governments", and through the design of effective mechanisms. (3) The synergy between ecological protection and community development in nature reserves requires further research on the important role of biodiversity in human society, and Nature-based Solutions are conducive to the formation of inclusive governance in protected areas. (4) The construction of a unified, standardized, and efficient national parks system requires the improvement of the leadership system and the development of a system for promoting the reform of the national parks system in a coordinated manner, leadership system and working mechanism for the reform of the national park system, forming a community of interests in the park and deepening the degree of integration between the park and the land. (5) The development of new quality productive forces is necessary to deal with the relationship between people and the land and the relationship between the park and the land, and the model of harmonious coexistence between human beings and nature that relies mainly on the market economy not only embodies the characteristics of the Chinese modernization, but also contributes to the mainstreaming of the work of the Convention on Biological Diversity in the work on biodiversity, and the formation of an internationally applicable model of biodiversity. (6) Cracking the problem of "human-land constraints" and properly handling the "park-land relationship" requires a top-to-bottom legal system to regulate national parks and escort the standardized use of natural resources. (7) The Belt and Road Initiative and the construction of ecological civilization complement each other, and China's nature reserve system can help the Global South to realize the equal importance of protection and development in global compliance, and provide Chinese wisdom for the construction of a community of ecological destiny for mankind.