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Published on: July 3, 2020
Which management measures lead to better performance of China's protected areas in reducing forest loss?
Chunting Feng1, Ming Cao1, Wei Wang1
1State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Regional Eco-process and Function Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China; Biodiversity Research Center, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China.
Abstract:
Protected areas (PAs) are considered essential for biodiversity conservation, and concerns about the effectiveness of PAs in terms of reducing deforestation are growing. However, few studies have identified the management measures that best reduce deforestation within existing PAs. Here, we carried out 10-year (from 2007 to 2016) field surveys and obtained a database of 10 management measures of 227 PAs mainly protecting forest ecosystems in China. We examined the contributions of the above 10 management measures in relation to the effectiveness of 227 PAs in reducing deforestation. Our results indicated that 52.68% of PAs had positive effects related to reducing deforestation (E > 0, P < 0.05), while 16.52% of PAs had negative effects (E < 0, P < 0.05). The most important management measures affecting the effectiveness of PAs in reducing deforestation were funding, infrastructure, and scientific research and monitoring. Thus, our study provides evidence indicating that improved funding and scientific research benefit the effectiveness of PAs. The findings have global implications for guiding PAs to take explicit measures to improve the outcomes of biodiversity conservation.
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