The Implementation of New Public Management in National Parks of Canada and Its Reference to China
新公共管理对中国自然保护区管理的借鉴:以加拿大国家公园改革为例

Since the reformation in Parks Canada conducted after 1994,it seems like that there is a trend that national park administration in Canada has a superficial similarity with protected area management in China because both of them are supported jointly by the government appropriation from tax collection and the revenue from tourism businesses.However,there are tremendous differences in protected area management between Canada and China,including government support,management institutions and conditions for the reformation.Based on the interviews with different level officials of Parks Canada system and field survey in five national/provincial parks in Canada,this article reviewed the reformation in national parks management of Canada by using new public management(NPM) theory and polarity management tool.According to the Canadian experiences,it is proved that NPM could be applied in the public sectors responsible for natural resources management.It was implemented to eliminate the disadvantages of bureaucratic management after its full development,including X-inefficiency and expanding expenditure.The main content of the reformation had two aspects:one was to remove the disadvantages of bureaucratic management by decentralization and introducing market tools;and the other was to maintain the advantages of bureaucratic management by the application of User Fee Principle and Cost Recovery Principle,the improvement of legislations and regulations system and the strengthening of monitoring system.In this way,the advantages of both bureaucratic and market-oriented management were combined to achieve the protection of ecological integration.However,the protected areas in China began to introduce market tools before the establishment of perfect bureaucratic management.Because of the problems of fund shortage,defective legislations and regulation system and absence of a consolidated organization responsible for protected area management,the disadvantages of market tools could not be controlled effectively.Compared with the experiences of Parks Canada,it is very difficult to take full advantage of market tools in protected area management before the establishment of a perfect legislation and regulation system and a consolidated organization.Therefore,it is recommended for China that the market tools should be highly cautiously applied into the protected area management unless three conditions have been achieved:(a)the establishment of perfect legislations and regulations system and its implementation;(b)more financial support from government to protected areas;and(c)a consolidated bureaucratic administration responsible for protected areas.