A new conservation strategy for China—A model starting with primates

Abstract

Although the evolutionary history of primates in China dates to the Eocene, and includes major radiations of lorisids, hominoids, cercopithecines, and colobines during the Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene, extensive human-induced habitat change and deforestation over the past few centuries has resulted in 22 of 25 extant species listed as threatened or endangered, and two species of gibbons extirpated in the last few years. This commentary briefly reviews factors that have contributed to the decline of primates in China over the past 400 years, and in particular how major social events and economic development in modern China have resulted in unsustainable environmental change. In response, we describe our efforts to develop a strategic scientific, educational and conservation partnership in China, focusing on primates, in which GIS technology will be used to integrate geographical profiles, climatic information, and changes in land use patterns and human and nonhuman primate distributions to highlight issues of immediate concern and to develop priority-based conservation solutions. Our goal is to evaluate how human-induced environmental change has impacted primates over time and to predict the likelihood of primate population extinctions in the near future. This model represents an early warning system that will be widely available to the Chinese government, public, educational institutions, researchers, and NGOs through social media and educational videos in order to arouse public awareness and promote wildlife conservation. We encourage colleagues across a broad range of academic disciplines, political ideologies, and the public to help move this strategy into reality, the sooner the better. Am. J. Primatol. 78:1137-1148, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Steep topography buffers threatened gymnosperm species against anthropogenic pressures in China

“…Because of limited enforcement of conservation measures in China's currently protected areas, species are under a constant threat of logging and collecting from local rural communities even there (Sang, Ma, & Axmacher, ). Therefore, it will also be important to enhance enforcement of protection of already protected areas to avoid losing the remaining populations of threatened species (Pan et al, ). Considering ongoing climate change, focus on conservation in areas with varied topography will be vital since such areas better allow for species to track climate (Sandel et al, ).…”

Catarrhine Evolution in China

“…Many archaeological records from Henan, Shanxi, Hubei, Chongqing, Zhejiang, Guizhou, and Guangxi indicate that early modern humans occupied continental China 50 or 100 kyr ago in Central and Eastern China [47,48]. Thus, the first measurable impact of modern humans on China's primates and other animals may begin some 7,000-9,000 years ago following more sophisticated tool technology [14,49,50]. Beginning about 2,000-3,000 years ago, China's first dynastic rulers resulted in significant changes to the landscape, deforestation due to increased human population size, followed by sizeable mammalian population extinction [51], particularly the shrunken gibbons' distribution areas [46].…”

Use of historical and contemporary distribution of mammals in China to inform conservation

“…China's primary conservation strategy has aimed to increase the number and extent of protected areas (PAs), which accounted for 3.0% of the total land area in 2004, 16.0% in 2014 (Zhang et al., 2017b), and 18% in 2019 (Huang et al., 2021). Despite this increase in PAs, China's biodiversity has continued to decline severely (Li et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2019; Pan et al., 2016). This situation implies that increasing PAs may not be working as planned.…”