Abstract: "Natural restoration as the priority" is one of the guiding ideology and important principles in the field of ecological restoration in China,which mainly depends on the natural self-regulation and self-organization to restore the ecosystem.In recent years,this expression has been repeatedly mentioned in policy and regulatory documents at all levels,and many interpretations derived from related requirements continue to attract much attention.Although "natural restoration",as a proper term originated from ecological science,has sufficient scientific connotation,if we only adopt the homogeneous deconstruction of it based on the perspective of natural science,it may make it difficult to provide clear legal guidance for restoration practice.In order to further explore the legal connotation of "natural restoration as the priority",this paper re-explains the due meaning of "natural restoration" at the normative level by sorting out the evolution of relevant concepts in the field of normative documents and ecological science,and comparing their application scenarios,essential requirements and main measures.Centering on the difficult problems in the construction of relevant mechanisms,it is argued that the legal implementation of "natural recovery" should take the value guidance at the legal level as the premise,the confirmation and protection of the legal carrier of natural restorative force as the focus,the formulation of regularized adaptive management requirements as the guarantee,and the realization of rigid constraints under the social-ecological complex system as the goal.

Key words: natural restoration as the priority, norm connotation, natural restorative force, legal implementation mechanism