Balancing Biodiversity Conservation and Rural Development: Contested Spaces of Regulating Bamboo Shoots in China's Giant Panda National Park

ABSTRACT This article investigates how China's nascent national‐park regime reshapes property relations and rural livelihoods through the contested regulation of bamboo‐shoot harvesting in Rivercross County's portion of the Giant Panda National Park. Participant observation, in‐depth interviews and an analysis of conservation statutes and local archival materials trace different phases of resource governance, from subsistence gathering to market‐driven auctions and today's zoning‐based bans. Ambiguous boundaries, discretionary enforcement and a state‐backed ‘cultivation’ program do not simply dispossess villagers; they carve out a legally grey zone where officials and residents co‐produce flexible property arrangements that both meet conservation metrics and keep livelihoods precariously viable. By foregrounding everyday performances of compliance, the study refines green‐grabbing debates and shows that China's conservation project advances not through total enclosure but through the productive ambiguity of law and space.