Planning And Management Effectiveness Assessment Of Nature Reserves In Hebei Province

Based on Geographic Approach to Protect Biological Diversity (GAP) and Rapid Assessment of Prioritization and Protect Area Management (RAPPAM), the priority areas in Hebei Province are identified through analyses of key protected species, priority ecosystems for conservation and the major threat to priority conservation areas. Integrating current situation with management effectiveness evaluation of the nature reserves in Hebei province, some recommendations were put forwarded to improve the nature reserve planning and management.The main results of this research are as follows:(1)The network of nature reserves in Hebei Provinc is still to be improved although a lot of nature reserves have been established. The nature reserves cover only 8.06 percent of the potential habitats of the protected species in Hebei province, but the total area of their potential habitats is about 43112.22 km2 . There is thus a big gap with the international standard for 10%～20%.(2)Among the 39 key protected species selected for this study, 38 species exist in at least one nature reserve except Boschniakia rossica(3)None of the following five types of priority ecosystems is under protection of current nature reserve network in Hebei Province: Festuca ovina,Artemisia spp. , forb steppe,Stipa grandis steppe,Stipa baicalensis,forb steppe,Bothriochloa ischaemum,forb steppe and Phragmites communis meadow. There is thus an obvious gap in conservation of these ecosystems.(4)Five priority regions were identified for protection based on the number of key protected species and type of priority ecosystems. They were ranked according to their gap priority from high to low: Western Bashan Grassland & Chengde region of middle Yanshan Mountain (both have the same gap priority value); Mountainous region of Northern Hebei, Mountainous region of Western Hebei, and South-east coastal region of Hebei. The area of the nature reserves in these five priority regions is only 5.5 percent of the total area of the five regions. The area of nature reserves is about 10% of the total area in the South-east coastal region, but less than 5% in the Mountainous region of Western Hebei. There is no a nature reserve in the Bashang grassland region. (5)The main threats to nature reserves in Hebei province are forest fire, tourism, over-collection of non-timber forest products, poaching, herding, collection of fuel-wood, mining & exploration, illegal logging; exploring, construction of power grids and roads,and natural disasters.(6)The overall management of nature reserves is poor in Hebei province as demonstrated by the lack of scientific research, monitoring and evaluation in most nature reserves, and lack of resource inventory for many nature reserves.Based on the above analysis, following proposals were put forward to improve management and planning of nature reserves in Hebei province:(1)A nature reserve in western Bashang Grassland region should be set up as soon as possible because of high threats to biodiversity and lack of any nature reserve in this area.(2)As the potentially suitable habitat for Crossoptilon mantchuricum, Zhuolu Nanshan and Baishishan of Laiyuan county should be given priority for setting up nature reserves. in order to decrease the Isolated Island Effects on Crossoptilon mantchuricum.(3)A wetland nature reserve in Bashang region of Zhangjiakou should be set up to protect Anguli Lake and Wetland of Shandianhe River basin, which is important not only for protecting wetland and birds, and also for protection of water resources and climate modulation for Beijing.(4)The Wuling Mountain nature reserve, one of 51 designated demonstration nature reserves in China, should collect and disseminate best practice in management and construction of nature reserves in order to improve the management of nature reserves in Hebei Province.(5)The strategic approach should be shifted from emphasis on quantity to emphasis on quality of nature reserves. Institutional building and basic work should be strengthened, and wide-range baseline surveys should be conducted to set up resource inventory.