ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the current legislative and policy frameworks of protected area (PA) management and their evolutionary processes. It shows the characteristics and deficits of the current framework. At the legislative level, with regard to the overall environment-related legislation, a general observation by scholars is that China has established a complicated framework of environmental legislation that is relatively complete. The distribution of legislative power and the hierarchy of legislative documents in China are mainly stipulated in the Legislation Law of 2015 (LL). The legislative power of legislatures at both the central and local levels and the rule-making power of administrative bodies are distinguished and provided for in the LL. The legislative framework of environmental protection can be generally categorized into pollution control law, environmental impact assessment law, marine protection law and natural conservation law. Environmental policies in China generally consist of two parts: pollution control and ecological protection.
