The granite forest landscape of Huangshan carries both rich biodiversity and cultural value. In particular, the famous Huangshan pines growing out of the cliffs are said to be breathtaking, and have been an inspiration for numerous artists for millennia.

Popularly referred to as “the loveliest mountain of China”, Mt. Huangshan Scenic Area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Global Geopark and Biosphere Reserve. The mountain landscape is well known for its scenery, sunsets, uniquely-shaped granite peaks, Huangshan Pine trees, and views of the clouds from above. This has made Huangshan a frequent subject of traditional Chinese paintings and literature, as well as modern photography.

The administration office, originally established in 1930, today oversees all the resources and anthropogenic activities in Mount Huangshan, offering a co-management mechanism with surrounding communities. Even with an ever-increasing number of visitors, the forest coverage rate of Huangshan has been increased from 56% in the 1970s to 98.29% in 2019. It is with this background that the Huangshan Scenic Area applied to the IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas.

The Green List encompasses a set of comprehensive indicators to evaluate whether a protected area has been managed in an effective way and achieved desired conservation outcomes. The whole process was also conducted in an integrated, fair, and justice manner through the Expert Assessment Group for the Green List (EAGL). 

During the site visit, the EAGLs not only communicated with the site managers, but also directly interacted with stakeholders from local communities, NGOs, and academia. This enabled assessors to have a comprehensive understanding about the site. 

Mr. Wu Wenda, Deputy Executive Director of Huangshan Scenic Area Administrative Committee and EAGL Member, had this to say,

“We expect to use the Green List concept and indicators as a tool to improve our management capacity for multi-designations. Also, as a member of IUCN, the committee hopes to enhance the cooperation with IUCN and contribute to the promotion of Green List in China.”

The concept of equitable governance and indicators of Green List are thus being applied for integrated management of UNESCO World Heritage Site, Global Geopark and Biosphere Reserve. Mr. Wu adds,

“The Green List also helps us with synergies among our three UNESCO designations, as it offers us a single set of indicators to review our work for all the three designations. It could be a management tool for single type protected area, as well as for multi-designations. We hope IUCN will have further cooperation with UNESCO and will be utilised in more UNESCO multi-designations areas.”

Learn more about Mount Huangshan at the IUCN Green List website.