Effectiveness of functional zones in National Nature Reserves for the protection of forest ecosystems in China

Understanding the impacts of ecological compensation policy on rural livelihoods: Insights from forest communities of China

Balancing the forest protection with local economic development is a pressing challenge and a key focus of current environmental policies. Ecological compensation programs (ECPs) are often employed in natural-resource dependent communities to address this dilemma. However, the impacts of ECP on local livelihoods remain controversial, and the mechanisms driving these outcomes are not fully understood. We investigate the impacts of an ECP on the livelihoods of rural residents, drawing on survey data collected from forest communities in Zhejiang, China. Using the propensity score matching (PSM) method to address potential self-selection bias, our findings reveal that ECP has significant and positive impacts on local livelihoods. This improvement is primarily attributed to increased income from forestry and gardening, alongside greater livelihood diversification. While non-agricultural livelihoods are increasingly important, agriculture remains a vital source of household's income. Additionally, the benefits of ECP are disproportionately enjoyed by wealthier and younger residents as well as those who are not left behind, suggesting a potential exacerbation of inequality among household groups. In light of these findings, we recommend implementing tailored financial assistance, enhancing training opportunities, and creating specialized employment roles for vulnerable groups, thereby supporting their livelihood transitions, advancing social equality and fostering the sustainable conservation of forest ecosystems.

Reeve's Muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi) Habitat Suitability Under Climate Change Scenarios in Hupingshan National Nature Reserve, China

Climate change and human disturbance are critical factors affecting the habitat distribution of wild animals, with implications for management strategies such as protecting migration corridors, habitat restoration, and species conservation. In the Hupingshan National Nature Reserve (NNR), Reeve's muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi) is a key prey species for the South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), which is extinct in the wild and targeted for reintroduction by the Chinese government. Thus, understanding the habitat distribution and abundance of Reeve's muntjac is essential to ensure the survival and sustainability of reintroduced tiger populations. Despite significant conservation efforts, the impacts of climate change and human disturbance on Reeve's muntjac habitat distribution in Hupingshan NNR remain unclear, though these factors could necessitate adaptive tiger management strategies due to shifts in prey abundance. In this study, we employed an optimized MaxEnt model to assess current habitat distribution and identify key environmental variables influencing the habitat distribution of Reeve's muntjac. Assuming non-climatic environmental factors will remain constant over the next century, we projected future habitat distribution under two shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP126 and SSP585) for the mid-century (2050s) and the late-century (2090s). Comparative analyses of current and projected habitat areas revealed potential impacts of climate change on this species. MaxEnt outputs classified habitat suitability into high, medium, and low levels. Results showed that climatic and human disturbance factors contributed 35.2% and 49.4% to habitat suitability, respectively. Under the SSP126 scenario, habitats with decreased suitability covered 0 km2 in the 2050s, expanding slightly to 4.2 km2 in the 2090s, while those with increased suitability spanned 491.1 km2 (2050s) and 463.2 km2 (2090s). Under the SSP585 scenario, habitats with decreased suitability covered 10.2 km2 in the 2050s and 431.8 km2 in the 2090s. Habitats with increased suitability were comparatively smaller under SSP585, covering 162.0 km2 (2050s) and 1.1 km2 (2090s). These findings suggest that while mid-century climate projections (SSP126 and SSP585) may support Reeve's muntjac's survival, habitat loss is projected by 2090s (SSP126). Thus, future climate change may lead to decreased habitat suitability and increased fragmentation, raising extinction risks for Reeves's muntjac. Mitigating these effects could involve establishing migration corridors, minimizing human disturbances, and potentially supplementing prey populations with captive-bred prey. Such measures are essential to support the South China tiger reintroduction plan and help ensure that prey availability remains sufficient for sustaining reintroduced tiger populations.

Systematic conservation planning considering ecosystem services can optimize the conservation system in the Qinling-Daba Mountains

Protected area are the cornerstone of biodiversity and ecosystem service conservation at the local, regional, and global levels. In 2019, China proposed the establishment of a nature reserve system (NRS)centered on national parks, integrating and improving various existing protected areas. This study focuses on the Qinling‒Daba Mountains, an area crucial for both biodiversity and ecosystem services. Through assessments of carbon storage (CS), water yield (WY), soil conservation (SC), and habitat quality (HQ), different conservation scenarios are considered in the context of Systematic conservation planning (SCP). An optimization scheme for the NRS in the Qinling-Daba Mountains is proposed, incorporating ecosystem services and comparing them with the existing system. Research indicates that the main protected areas are concentrated in the Min Mountain‒Motian Mountain‒Longmen Mountain region, the central Qinling region, and the Shennongjia‒Daba Mountain region. Compared with the original system, the area of protected regions in the NRS expanded by 52,000 km2 after the SCP scheme was incorporated. The number of patches decreased to 50, and the patch density reduced from 2.1 × 10-4(/100 ha) to 1.7 × 10-4(/100 ha), thereby reducing the fragmentation of the conservation system. Additionally, the optimized scheme achieved a conservation ratio of over 30% for CS, WY, SC, and HQ, with the conservation efficiency for WY and HQ increasing by 0.18 and 0.22, respectively. The study results provide support for optimizing the Qinling-Daba Mountains NRS and offer a reference for constructing NRSs in other regions. Considering ecosystem services in the optimization of the NRS helps enhance the supply capacity of ecological products, maintain national ecological security, and achieve harmonious coexistence and sustainable development between humans and nature.

Plant community phylogeny responses to protections and its main drivers in boreal forests, China: General pattern and implications

Patterns of the phylogenetic structure have been broadly applied to predict community assembly processes. However, the distribution pattern of evolutionary diversity and its drivers under nature conservation are still poorly understood in boreal forests. Here, we investigated 1738 sampling plots and subplots from distinct protection intensities (PIs) zones in five representative National Nature Reserves (NNRs). Multiple comparisons, redundancy analysis, and linear mixed model were performed to identify the changes in community phylogeny across different PIs and NNRs and the drivers for these variations. Our results showed considerable plant community phylogeny variations in different NNRs. As indicated by SesMPD (standardized mean pairwise distance) and SesMNTD (standardized the mean nearest taxon distance), trees, shrubs, and herbs presented overdispersed, clustered, and random distribution patterns, respectively, in different PIs. Protection resulted in the phylogenetic structure between the nearest species of trees showing a more overdispersed pattern (p < 0.05). Protection decreased the phylogenetically clustered degree between the nearest species of shrubs (p > 0.05), while the herbs still maintained a random pattern. Community traits explained the most to phylogeny variation of different communities (24 %-71 %, p < 0.01), followed by geoclimatic factors (2 %-24 %) and conservation processes (1 %-21 %). The higher mean annual precipitation and under branch height at the lower latitude area accompanied the higher SesMPD and SesMNTD. The higher PIs attended with higher tree SesMPD, and the longer protection time resulted in higher shrub PSR (phylogenetic species richness) and PSV (phylogenetic species variability). Including the location of NNRs, community traits, and years of protection, rather than only emphasizing PI itself, could optimize community phylogenetic structure and preserve the evolutionary potential of biodiversity.

Administrative Level May Be the Key Factor to Improve Protection Effectiveness of Nature Reserves in China

Nature reserves (NRs) have been the backbone of biodiversity conservation and the construction of China’s ‘ecological-civilization’ since the 1950s. With over 11,800 protected areas (PAs) covering 18% of the country’s land area, Chinese NRs have made a great contribution to global biodiversity conservation. At this point, better protection effectiveness can be achieved by optimizing the management organization rather than expanding the area. We analyzed the management structure of Chinese NRs by looking at their ranks, the hierarchy of administrative organs, number of grass-root stations, manpower, and financial resources, among other variables. We found that the average number of staff employed and yearly financial input per km2 of Chinese NRs were both higher than the world and US averages. However, the range was extremely high, revealing great unbalance among different regions and ranks of NRs. In particular, the western part of China, which is less developed and features the least disturbed ecosystems, received less funding and staff resources than the developed east. A further analysis of the highest-ranked nature reserves, i.e., the national nature reserves (NNRs), showed that administrative organs of different hierarchical statuses (the lowest being Deputy family, the highest being Division level) could be in charge of them. Unexpectedly, we found that the amount of human and financial resources injected into NNRs was correlated with the level of their administration but dissociated from other important factors such as the reserve’s size or ecological value. Furthermore, the management organization was inadequate, with many NRs lacking key departments as defined by Chinese nature reserve regulations. We suggest that the administrative levels of management organization in NRs should be unified, and through the existing ecological transfer payments policy, strengthen the financial and staffing input in the western NRs of China. Moreover, the internal structure of NRs management should include all relevant departments with specific tasks and the creation of grass-root stations should be promoted without neglecting the capacity building to improve staff’s knowledge.