Conservation planning on China's borders with Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam

Wang, Lin; Yang, Bin; Bai, Yang; Lu, Xiaoqiang; Corlett, Richard T.; Tan, Yun‐Hong; Jian-guo, Zhu; Liu, Yan; Quan, Rui‐Chang

doi:10.1111/cobi.13733

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(60 reference statements)

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“…The ECA represents the amount of reachable habitat for a given species and landscape and is defined as the size of a single (maximally connected) patch that would provide an equivalent level of connectivity as the observed habitat pattern (Saura et al, 2011). Since the ECA for a given landscape and species is provided in units of area (e.g., km 2 ), its value can be directly compared with values from other landscapes or even values from the same landscape but at different times in history (Wang et al, 2021).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicted Pleistocene–Holocene range and connectivity declines of the vulnerable fishing cat and insights for current conservation

Petersen

Savini

Chutipong

et al. 2022

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim Identifying appropriate conservation measures requires a reasonable understanding of a species' population status, distribution and vulnerability. However, for many species, these variables may not be understood under the context of current conditions alone. Here, we assess the potential role historical changes in climate, sea level and anthropogenic activity may have had on the distribution of one of the world's least‐understood wild cats and identify broader implications for conservation efforts that may not be apparent from just an examination of the species' current distribution. Location Tropical Asia. Taxon Fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus). Methods We used a presence‐only ecological niche model and a least‐cost graph‐based connectivity model to characterize the species' bio‐climatic niche and predict changes in suitability and connectivity under current and paleoenvironmental conditions. Results Fishing cat occurrence was associated with landscapes that were low in elevation and high in topographic wetness and climates that were warm with moderate annual precipitation and moderate seasonal variation in both temperature and precipitation. Since the Last Interglacial, the area predicted to be climatically suitable has ranged from 5.9 million km2 during the Last Glacial Maximum to 2.2 million km2 during the Current Era. Changes in regional connectivity correlated with changes in suitable area for all periods except the Current Era. Relative connectivity of areas affected by past sea level rise was highest in areas with large alluvial plains, emergent coastal areas and deltas. Main conclusions Our findings suggest that the fishing cat's current distribution and vulnerability can be explained by a synergistic combination of historical climate change, sea level rise, and anthropogenic land‐use change. Changes in suitability and connectivity over time highlight potential core areas that are underrepresented by historical survey efforts. Future survey efforts should include these areas, with an emphasis on quantifying tolerances to anthropogenic disturbances.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicted Pleistocene–Holocene range and connectivity declines of the vulnerable fishing cat and insights for current conservation

Petersen

Savini

Chutipong

et al. 2022

Journal of Biogeography

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“…Training in and implementation of best practices in biogeographic models such as SDMs hold great promise to facilitate and help guide complex, transboundary collaborations for long-term planning of conservation under climate change. SDMs can be particularly helpful in illuminating the importance of transboundary conservation (e.g., Wang et al 2021). In particular, SDMs can provide inputs for mitigation and adaptation strategies, such as 'climate-connecting' corridors for coordinated conservation of potential movement (Senior et al 2019).…”

Section: Transboundary Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species distribution modeling to inform transboundary species conservation and management under climate change: promise and pitfalls

Blair¹,

Lê²,

Xu³

2022

Frontiers of Biogeography

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Spatially explicit biogeographic models are among the most used methods in conservation biogeography, with correlative species distribution models (SDMs) being the most popular among them. SDMs can identify the potential for species' and community range shifts under climate change, and thus can inspire, inform, and guide complex and adaptive conservation management planning efforts such as collaborative transboundary conservation frameworks. However, SDMs are rarely developed collaboratively, which would be ideal for conservation applications of such models. Further, SDMs that are applied to conservation often do not follow best practices of the field, which are particularly important for applications in climate change contexts for which model extrapolation into potentially novel climates is necessary. Thus, while there is substantial promise, particularly among machine-learning based SDM approaches, there are also many pitfalls to consider when applying SDMs to conservation, and especially in the context of transboundary management under climate change. Here, we summarize these pitfalls and the key steps to mitigate them and maximize the promise of applying SDMs to facilitate transboundary conservation planning under climate change. We argue that conservation modeling capacity must be elevated among practitioners such that they can easily implement best practices when using SDMs, especially regarding: 1) avoiding model overcomplexity, 2) addressing input data bias, and 3) accounting for uncertainty in model extrapolations and projections. While our discussion centers mainly on the pitfalls and opportunities of applying the most popular correlative SDM algorithm, Maxent, our suggestions can also be generalized to a range of other SDM tools. Overall, improved training in, tools for, and implementation of best practices in biogeographic models such as SDMs hold great promise to 3 facilitate and help guide complex, transboundary collaborations for long-term planning of conservation under climate change. Highlights:• As global changes including climate change continue, we will have to increasingly work across borders to achieve biodiversity conservation goals and to do better science.• Conservation biogeography methods, especially species distribution models (SDMs), hold great promise to inform transboundary conservation under climate change.• We outline the key SDM pitfalls that are most relevant to applications of climate change and steps to avoid them, such as improving practitioner-modeler capacity to follow SDM best practices.• We argue that, especially in transboundary conservation contexts, SDMs should be collaboratively developed from the outset with all of the stakeholders for whom the model will be relevant.• Borders often exemplify complex sociopolitical contexts and histories between countries; thus, conservation scientists, practitioners, and managers, including conservation biogeographers, have an obligation to understand those contexts and know how they relate to our work and the goals of conservation.

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“…Tang et al found that the estimated forest disturbance area reached 4366.14 km 2 in the China-Laos border areas from 1991 to 2016 [66]. Lin Wang et al found that the reduction of natural forests in the southwestern border areas of China led to a decrease in the number of biological habitats, especially in the Sino-Vietnamese border area [67]. We extracted the range of key biodiversity areas (KBA, https://www.keybiodiversityareas.org/, accessed on 10 May 2022) and found that the HAI in KBA increased by 13% from 1992 to 2020.…”

Section: Implications Of the Hai For Ecosystem Services And Biodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Activity Intensity and Its Spatial-Temporal Evolution in China’s Border Areas

Cheng

Liu

Chen

et al. 2022

Land

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Monitoring human activities in border areas is challenging due to the complex geographical environment and diverse people. China has the longest terrestrial boundary and the highest number of neighboring countries in the world. In this study, a human activity intensity index (HAI) was proposed based on land cover, population density, and satellite-based nighttime light for a long-term macroscopic study. The HAI was calculated at 1 km resolution within the 50 km buffer zone of China’s land boundary on each side in 1992, 2000, 2010, and 2020, respectively. Results show that human activity is low in about 90% of the study area. Overall, the HAI on the Chinese side is higher than that on the neighboring side, and the intensity of land use on the Chinese side has increased significantly from 1992 to 2020. Among China’s neighbors, India has the highest HAI with the fastest growth. With the changes in the HAI between China and its neighboring countries, four regional evolution patterns are found in the study area: Sino-Russian HAI decline; Sino-Kazakhstan HAI unilateral growth; Indian HAI continuous growth; China and Indochina HAI synchronized growth. Hotspot analysis reveals three spatial evolution patterns, which are unilateral expansion, bilateral expansion, and cross-border fusion. Both the “border effect” and “agglomeration effect” exist in border areas. The HAI changes in border areas not only impact the eco-environment but also affect geopolitics and geoeconomics. The HAI can be used as an instrument for decision-making and cooperation between China and neighboring countries in such areas as ecological protection, border security, and border trade.

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Conservation planning on China's borders with Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam

Abstract: Article impact statement: Species distribution pattern and connectivity change call for transboundary conservation on China's borders with Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam.

Cited by 13 publications

References 39 publications

Predicted Pleistocene–Holocene range and connectivity declines of the vulnerable fishing cat and insights for current conservation

Predicted Pleistocene–Holocene range and connectivity declines of the vulnerable fishing cat and insights for current conservation

Species distribution modeling to inform transboundary species conservation and management under climate change: promise and pitfalls

Human Activity Intensity and Its Spatial-Temporal Evolution in China’s Border Areas

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