Low ecological representation in the protected area network of China

Abstract

Protected areas are considered as an essential strategy to halt the decline of biodiversity. Ecological representation in protected areas is crucial for assessment on the progress toward conservation targets. Although China has established a large number of protected areas since the 1950s, ecological representation of protected areas is poorly understood. Here, we performed the complementarity analysis to evaluate ecological representation of protected areas in China. We used a database of the geographical distribution for 10,396 woody plant species, 2,305 fern species, 406 amphibian species, 460 reptile species, 1,364 bird species, and 590 mammal species from 2,376 counties across China. We identified complementary sets of counties for all species or threatened species of plant and vertebrate species using a complementarity algorithm. We evaluated ecological representation of 3,627 protected areas and discerned conservation gaps by comparing the distribution of protected areas with complementary sets. The results show that the spatially representative and complementary sites for biodiversity are poorly covered, and a fairly large proportion of protected areas is not designed to efficiently represent biodiversity at the national scale. Our methodology can serve as a generic framework for assessment on ecological representation of protected areas at the national scale.

Strengthening China's national biodiversity strategy to attain an ecological civilization

“…The distribution of Nature Reserves (mostly allocated in western China) mismatches that of threatened species’ habitats (much in eastern China; Xu et al., ). A top‐down process of systematic PA designation is lacking, and most PAs are established by local governments in an opportunistic manner (Xu et al., ). We propose to apply systematic conservation planning to improve the representativeness of PAs (Lü et al., ; Xu et al., ).…”

“…A top‐down process of systematic PA designation is lacking, and most PAs are established by local governments in an opportunistic manner (Xu et al., ). We propose to apply systematic conservation planning to improve the representativeness of PAs (Lü et al., ; Xu et al., ).…”

“…Moreover, China's PA system still cannot efficiently represent its biodiversity. Xu et al (2018) found that 291 of the 552 key counties for species conservation have <10% PA coverage. The distribution of Nature Reserves (mostly allocated in western China) mismatches that of threatened species' habitats (much in eastern China; Xu et al, 2017).…”

“…The latest Red Lists of China's Biodiversity indicate that >20% of vertebrates and >10% of higher plants are threatened or extinct (Jiang, ; Liu et al., ). Large conservation gaps still exist (Xu et al., ), and more than one third of the forest Nature Reserves in southwest China have failed to curb deforestation (Zhao et al., ). Therefore, there is plenty of room for cost‐effectively achieving greater biodiversity outcomes across China's ES&PA programs (Bryan et al., ; Hua et al., ).…”

Application of Ostrom’s Social-Ecological Systems Framework in Nature Reserves: Hybrid Psycho-Economic Model of Collective Forest Management

“…These are endowed, unique, and irreplaceable environments that exhibit an abundance of biodiversity, shelter endangered wildlife, promote public awareness of nature conservation, and have provided grounds for scientific research for more than five decades [1,2]. From 2014, China established 2729 NRs, covering approximately 15% of its terrestrial lands [3]. Currently, 80.7% of wild flora (i.e., vegetation) in China can be found within at least one NR [1,4,5].…”