TITLE:
Comparative Analysis of Conservation Strategies and Outcomes in Simen Mountains National Park (SMNP), Ethiopia and Qianjiangyuan National Park (QNP), China
AUTHORS:
Gatiso Girum Gamme, Guoquan Zheng
KEYWORDS:
Conservation, Simien Mountain National Park, Qianjiangyuan National Park, Ethiopia, China
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.12 No.7,
July
11,
2025
ABSTRACT: The comparative analysis of conservation management of Simien Mountains National Park (SMNP) and Qianjiangyuan National Park (QNP) in China provides deductions that can be successfully implemented as conservation strategies and replicated in other protected areas. QNP benefits from a tiered administrative framework with strong provincial leadership and stakeholder collaboration yielding versatile conservation strategies. Effective land-use regulations and zoning have kept more than 81.7% of the 252 km2 QNP in China as forest. QNP’s formalized zoning of traditional-use areas has decreased conflicts and improved local livelihood integration. The watershed protection and carbon storage have been enhanced as a result of the coordinated reforestation of former farmland. The ecotourism industry has been flourishing at the same time as these measures. The formalization of the local population’s living and production areas through QNP’s zoning has been crucial in increasing community engagement in park organizing and assisting in striking the right balance between local livelihoods and sustainability. These integrated management techniques have therefore improved the protection of QNP’s flagship fauna (such as the black muntjac and white-necked pheasant) and subtropical broad-leaved woodlands. SMNP places equal emphasis on community-led conservation practices. Significant growth can be seen in tourism-related revenue and community beneficiaries rose steadily from about 2500 in 2007 to more than 11,000 by 2016. By 2026, projection models predict that there will be over 19,000 beneficiaries (averaging an income of approximately $1123). Significant growth in endangered species has accompanied the existing conservation initiatives, for instance, under current administration, the number of Ethiopian wolves and Walia ibex have steadily recovered. However, SMNP continues to deal with growing rural settlements and customary territorial disputes at its boundaries with grazing and agricultural encroachment (caused by approximately 129,000 livestock units in the region) resulting in the loss of an estimated 33,084 ha of forest by the year 2020. Efficiency gaps have been attributed to SMNP’s disjointed administration structure, which is still centralized under Ethiopia’s federal wildlife authority, making coordination difficult. The findings of this research study suggest significant implications for practice and policy. This cross-regional comparison of conservation strategies has the potential to inform the evolution of better conservation outcomes of ecosystem management by rallying the implementation of more empirical conservation strategies. Conservation strategies must be tailored locally and aligned with social and cultural factors. However, policymakers in Ethiopia and China can refine conservation strategies by adopting proven practices from each other’s experience (for example, integrating QNP’s community-zoning approach in SMNP, or expanding SMNP’s ecotourism revenue-sharing in QNP).