Assessment Of Conservation Priority Among Nature Reserves Based On Species And Ecosystem Diversity In Yunnan Province

Biodiversity that is facing grand new risks and challenges now has been providing basic guarantee for human survival.It is an important material premise for the development of human civilization.As the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation,protected areas have been preventing wild animals and plants from disturbance of human activities and maintaining the integrity of ecosystem to some extent.However,given limited conservation resources,many protected areas are facing the shortage of construction funds,insufficient professional managers,and backward infrastructure conditions.At the same time,there is also a lack of systematic planning in the initial stage of establishment,which leads to weakly comprehensive conservation efficiency of the whole network.Assessing the priority of existing protected areas rationally can improve the efficiency of resource allocation and facilitate sustainable development of the protected area system.Nature reserves is an essential part of protected area system in China.Therefore,it is critical to develop scientific,effective and easy-to-use assessment method to assess the priority of nature reserves.We took representative nature reserves in Yunnan province as research objects and assessed conservation priority among them in terms of species diversity and ecosystem diversity in this dissertation.As for conservation priority based on species diversity,the conservation priority sequences were obtained by using species-diversity conservation value method named individual-scoring algorithm,species-number complementarity algorithm,and the newly proposed species-value complementarity algorithm which combined the former two algorithms.And we compared conservation efficiency of different results to get conservation priority based on species diversity.As for the conservation priority based on ecosystem diversity,we used ZONATION,a systematic conservation planning model,to quantitatively assess conservation priority of ecosystem in each nature reserve based on spatial distribution data of ecosystem and priority ecosystem types from predecessor’s research,developing priority in the ecosystem level.Finally,the comprehensive conservation priority strategies and suggestions were generated through comparison analysis of conservation efficiency.The main conclusions are as follows:（1）National nature reserves are of higher priority than provincial ones in the terms of species-diversity,while some provincial ones are of exception,such as Tongbiguan,Tuoniang River,Caiyang River,Yulong Snow Mountain and Lancang River Provincial Nature Reserve.It is supposed to be allocated more conservation resources and considered to be promoted to National level.The average efficiency of species conservation value of Species-value complementarity algorithm is 1.83%,3.37% higher than the counterparts by the Individual-scoring algorithm and the Species-number complementarity algorithm respectively,which illustrates that the Species-value complementarity algorithm maximizes the conservation efficiency of species conservation value when conservation value is used as main principle to determine conservation priority.It is an easy way for conservation planning decision makers and protected area managers to master and is a fairly effective assessment algorithm.（2）Conservation priority of national nature reserves based on ecosystem is higher than provincial ones.The first-level nature reserves are mainly distributed in the Dulong RiverGaoligong Mountains Region,Shangri-La Deqen Alpine Canyon Region and Central Yunnan Subtropical Plateau Region in western Yunnan.Natural reserves located in Southern Yunnan Tropical Low-mountain Valley Region,Central Yunnan Subtropical Plateau Region and Hengduan Mountains in western Yunnan Region also have higher ecosystem priority,among which Pearl River Source,Lancang River and Lanping Yunling Provincial Nature Reserve should be considered for promotion.A few wildlife-type national nature reserves are of weaker ecosystem conservation priority,such as Upper Yangtze River rare and Endemic Fishes Nature Reserve and Huize Black-necked Crane National Nature Reserve,ranking lower.In the process of management and protection,it’s necessary to construct and maintain the integrity of ecosystem within them.（3）According to the conservation priority results based on species and ecosystems,they can both improve the conservation efficiency of protected area system to some extent.There is a certain correlation between the two priority sequences,but there are also differences.For the nature reserves with high correlation within both priorities,the conservation strategies should be guided by the integration of species and ecosystem conservation values.Nature reserves with low relevance can be prioritized according to the conservation value of the main protected objects.All in all,the methods used to assess conservation priority in this study are aimed at optimizing the conservation efficiency of the protected area network.We encourage management agencies of protected areas to strengthen cooperation and establish complementary allocation of protected resources,to establish mechanism reducing the redundancy generated by conservation actions.This study provides new ideas for how to improve the conservation efficiency,and a scientific support for how to configure the conservation resources of the protected area system and adjust conservation strategies at a provincial scale.