Nation aims to expand protected area management

China has established more than 11,800 protected areas covering 18 percent of its land area and 4.6 percent of its sea area, aiming to build the world's most expansive mechanism for the management of protected areas by 2025, authorities revealed on Wednesday.

Under the plan for the new mechanism, the country's protected areas are divided into three categories - national parks, nature parks and nature protected areas, according to Li Chunliang, deputy head of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

Ten pilot programs at national parks, representing China's most typical natural systems, will conclude by the end of 2020. The pilot parks include Giant Panda National Park, Three-River-Source National Park, and Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park.