The major issues in ecological restoration of China's territorial space

Ecological restoration of China's territorial space is fundamental to sustainable development of the Chinese nation in building a beautiful country. The research methods used in this study included comprehensive literature analysis, systematic review, empirical and analogous analyses, trend extrapolation, and environmental impact assessment. This paper systematically examined the territorial ecological restoration from the aspects of national strategy and top-level design, expounded the research methodology from the perspectives of project planning, technical route and method, field station, and plot, analyzed the problems of "pseudo-ecology" and "fake technology", and pointed out the strategic guidelines, objectives, directions, principles, priorities, and countermeasures for improving ecological restoration. In addition, from five aspects of ecological restoration including the major scientific issues and hotspots, context analysis, zoning classification, differential management, and ecological compensation mechanism, this research advocated scientific and technological support to boosting ecological restoration of China's territorial space, and discusses the issues of "two (ecological) barriers and three (protection) zones", scientific advancement of ecological restoration, and integration of management and technical ideas. The study results provide a scientific basis for solving the three major contradictions-interconnectedness of ecological elements and departmentalization of management authorities, continuity of ecological space and division of local administrations, and long-term nature of ecological engineering and temporariness of administrative tenures-in the "overall protection, systematic restoration and comprehensive management" of territorial space. © 2021, Editorial Office of Earth Science Frontiers. All right reserved.