Optimizing protected areas to boost the conservation of key protected wildlife in China

• Published in: Innovation (New York, NY) Vol. 4; no. 3; p. 100424
• Main Authors: Mi, Chunrong, Song, Kai, Ma, Liang, Xu, Jiliang, Sun, Baojun, Sun, Yuehua, Liu, Jianguo, Du, Weiguo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 15.05.2023; Elsevier
• ISSN: 2666-6758; 2666-6758
• DOI: 10.1016/j.xinn.2023.100424

To meet the challenge of biodiversity loss and reach the targets of the proposed Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, the Chinese government updated the list of national key protected wildlife in 2021 and has been continually expanding the protected areas (PAs). However, the status of protected wildlife in PAs remains unclear. In this study, we conducted a national assessment of the status of protected wildlife and suggested an optimization plan to overcome these shortcomings. From 1988 to 2021, the number of protected species almost doubled, and the area of PAs increased by 2.4 times, covering over 92.8% of the protected species. Nonetheless, some protected species have less than 10% of their habitat included in PAs. Despite the significant addition of amphibians and reptiles to the latest protection list, they are the fewest species and are the least covered by PAs compared with birds and mammals. To fix these gaps, we systematically optimized the current PAs network by adding another 10.0% of China’s land area as PAs, which resulted in 37.6% coverage of protected species’ habitats in PAs. In addition, 26 priority areas were identified. Our research aimed to identify gaps in current conservation policies and suggest optimization solutions to facilitate wildlife conservation planning in China. In general, updating the list of key protected wildlife species and systematically optimizing PA networks are essential and applicable to other countries facing biodiversity loss. [Display omitted] •From 1988 to 2021, the number of protected species almost doubled, the area of protected areas increased 2.4 times.•Over 92.8% of protected species are in protected areas, but some species are not effectively protected.•Amphibians and reptiles are significant additions to the protection list, but still least protected.•Another 10.0% of China’s land area is needed as protected areas to achieve the protection target.