Habitat suitability and connectivity inform a co-management policy of protected area network for Asian elephants in China

Abstract

Enlarging protected area networks (PANs) is critical to ensure the long-term population viability of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), which are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation. Strict policies of PAN enlargement that focus on wildlife conservation have failed largely due to difficulties in encouraging stakeholder participation and meeting the elephant habitat requirement. A co-management policy that promotes sustainable resource use, wildlife conservation, and stakeholder participation may have greater feasibility than the strict policies in a developing world. Here, we identified the suitable habitat of elephants using maximum entropy models and examined whether habitat suitability is indirectly associated with local economic development in human-dominated landscapes. We found that (1) the suitable habitat was mainly in areas of forest matrix (50% natural forest cover) with multiple land-use practices rather than relatively intact forest and near communities (mean distance two km) and (2) habitat suitability was negatively associated with local economic development (rP = −0.37, P = 0.04). From the standpoint of elephant habitat and its socio-economic background, our results indicate that co-management will be more effective than the currently strict approaches of enlarging PAN. Additionally, our results provide on-ground information for elephant corridor design in southern China.

Predicting indirect effects of transportation network expansion on Asian elephants: Implications for environmental impact assessments

“…The Xishuangbanna–Pu'er elephant population mainly inhabits Mengyang, Simaogang, Liushun, Yunxian, and Jiangcheng (Figure a) (Zhang et al, ). Elephant movements between the east and west sides of the Sixiao Highway are rare in this area (black rectangle in Figure a, b), according to quantitative models (Huang, Li, Khanal, & Jiang, ) and interviews with local rangers, adjusters, and community heads. A herd of four females has inhabited Yunxian for 13 years with no apparent range overlap with the other herds (Chen et al, ).…”

“…(a) Location of elephant‐caused damage by the subpopulations of Yunxian (YX), Mengyang–Jiangcheng (MY‐JC), and Mengyang–Liushun–Simaogang (MY–LS–SMG). (b) Habitat connectivity (Huang, Li, Khanal, et al, ) and the elephant pathways. The light green arrows show the direction of elephant movements.…”

“…Since place names were commonly used for describing spatial localities by the adjusters, forest rangers, and community heads (some are hired for monitoring elephants and coordinating with related persons in nearby villages), we spatialized these place names by interviewing these local people involved in damage assessments from March to June 2017. First, the previously recorded 2,050 place names (Huang, Li, Khanal, et al, ) were overlaid on high‐resolution landscape images in Google Earth as ground references. Second, labeled place names of damage were validated by the local people.…”

“…We digitized the TN map from construction companies and used the land cover map from Huang, Li, Khanal, et al ().…”

Correlates of avifaunal diversity along the elevational gradient of Mardi Himal in Annapurna Conservation Area, Central Nepal

“…food resources, species interactions) conditions that vary across elevation gradients force the avian species to ascend or descend avoiding the harsh environmental conditions (Amani et al 2018). Birds migrate to relocate themselves to areas with a surplus of resources to maximize breeding success and to minimize the risk of high physiological demands and low resource availability (Beuel et al 2016;Thakuri and Pokhrel 2017;Huang et al 2019). Extreme shifts in temperature drive the long-distance or trans-continental migration in birds, whereas, fluctuation in the precipitation often causes altitudinal migration within a region (He et al 2019).…”