Balancing tree age and other critical criteria to improve heritage tree designation and protection in China

Heritage trees serve as living archives of ecological processes and cultural continuity, playing irreplaceable roles in maintaining biodiversity, regulating climate, and embodying historical memory. In China, current heritage tree protection policies rely exclusively on tree age, designating individuals over 100 years old as eligible for protection. However, this age-based framework faces significant challenges, including methodological difficulties in age determination, exclusion of ecologically and culturally valuable younger trees, and vulnerability to manipulation for tourism or prestige purposes. Drawing on international case studies from the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia and other countries, this study critically evaluates the limitations of China’s current protection model and proposes a comprehensive dual-track framework. The first track retains age-based criteria for trees with verifiable age data. The second track introduces a multi-criteria evaluation system assessing integrated natural and cultural criteria (i.e., encompassing ecological, botanical, cultural, historical, and aesthetic values) that can enlist trees under 100 years old or with unverifiable age. This integrative and expanded approach promotes more inclusive, scientifically sound, and culturally sensitive heritage tree conservation. By advancing a flexible and context-specific model, this study contributes to developing a robust, multidimensional framework for safeguarding China’s living arboreal heritage, with potential applicability to global conservation efforts informed by international practices. Copyright © 2025 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.