Abstract: Establishing nature reserves is the main way to protect biodiversity. The government establishes nature reserves by acquiring or trading land, but faces cost and management challenges. The use of command and control measures to directly regulate the ecological environment on collective or private land cannot adapt to the heterogeneity of ecological space. The cooperative governance concept of encouraging land rights holders and social organizations to participate in natural ecological protection has been widely accepted. Protective servitude is a voluntary and sustainable burden of protection, characterized by non possession, determination, and retroactive effect, and can be classified under private law servitude. At the same time, the protection of servitude aims to protect the natural ecology, does not require servitude as a prerequisite, and can create positive obligations for the providers of servitude. In the comparative laws, countries such as the United States and France classify the protection of servitude as private law servitude or debt over property, but countries such as Australia give it more public law color. The protection of servitude is difficult to be covered by the existing norms of servitude in the Civil Code. In order to meet the legal requirements of property rights, it is necessary to clarify the types and effectiveness of protected easements in separate laws on natural protected areas and the Ecological Environment Code in stages.

Key words: protection of servitude, collaborative governance, system positioning