Formulating a list of sites of waterbird conservation significance to contribute to China’s Ecological Protection Red Line

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
LU ZHANG ◽  
XIN WANG ◽  
JUNJIAN ZHANG ◽  
ZHIYUN OUYANG ◽  
SIMBA CHAN ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Nature Reserves ◽  
Ramsar Site ◽  
Ecological Protection ◽  
National Nature Reserves ◽  
Effective Conservation ◽  
Red Line

SummaryChina makes a unique and vital contribution to maintaining global and regional waterbird diversity and conservation. Despite considerable historical conservation efforts, the continued loss of waterbird diversity and abundance necessitates a contemporary review of Chinese sites of conservation significance. The Ecological Protection Red Line (EPRL) was proposed by China’s Central Government in 2013 to protect areas providing crucial ecosystem services and provides the opportunity for such a review to enhance waterbird conservation in China. By incorporating various sources of data, surveys and information, we identified a suite of sites of waterbird conservation significance in China, following the Ramsar Site Criteria/Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) Criteria. In total, we identified 422 sites, of which the existing 286 IBA sites formed the basis of the site safeguard network. Altogether, these sites of waterbird conservation significance constitute over 727,000 km2 (7.6% of China’s land surface). Over half of the area of these sites is outside China’s national nature reserves, thus confirming the importance and urgency of including them in the EPRL for the effective conservation of waterbird sites. We suggest that this assessment of sites of waterbird importance offers a useful model to apply to other taxa, such as terrestrial birds and mammals.

scholarly journals Valuation of Wetland Ecosystem Services in National Nature Reserves in China’s Coastal Zones

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaowei Li ◽  
Xiubo Yu ◽  
Xiyong Hou ◽  
Yubin Liu ◽  
Hui Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Net Primary Productivity ◽  
Nature Reserves ◽  
Wetland Ecosystem ◽  
Coastal Zones ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Literature Database ◽  
National Nature Reserves ◽  
Wetland Types

Wetlands provide ecosystem services for regional development, and, thus, have considerable economic value. In this study, a combination of evaluation methods was carried out to evaluate the wetland ecosystem services provided by national nature reserves in 11 coastal provinces/municipalities in China. We constructed a literature database containing 808 observations (over 170 papers) on field-scale research for wetlands in China’s coastal zones. Using this literature database, as well as land use (LU) data, net primary productivity (NPP), and statistical data, and digital elevation model (DEM) data, we established a valuation framework and database for nine important ecosystem services of the 13 wetland types in the study area. After the large-scale academic literature review, the ordinary kriging offered by Geostatistical Analyst tools was used to interpolate the physical dimensions of the unmeasured locations. The results showed that: 1) the wetland ecosystem services in 35 national nature reserves have a total value of 33.168 billion USD/year; 2) the values of wetland ecosystem services revealed considerable spatial variability along China’s coastal zones; and 3) assessments provide additional insights into the trade-offs between different ecosystem services and wetland types. The valuation framework and database established in this study can contribute to the mapping of wetland ecosystem services in coastal zones.

scholarly journals Strengthening protected areas for biodiversity and ecosystem services in China

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (7) ◽  
pp. 1601-1606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weihua Xu ◽  
Yi Xiao ◽  
Jingjing Zhang ◽  
Wu Yang ◽  
Lu Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Threatened Species ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Life Support ◽  
Nature Reserves ◽  
Western China ◽  
Source Areas ◽  
Regulating Services

Recent expansion of the scale of human activities poses severe threats to Earth’s life-support systems. Increasingly, protected areas (PAs) are expected to serve dual goals: protect biodiversity and secure ecosystem services. We report a nationwide assessment for China, quantifying the provision of threatened species habitat and four key regulating services—water retention, soil retention, sandstorm prevention, and carbon sequestration—in nature reserves (the primary category of PAs in China). We find that China’s nature reserves serve moderately well for mammals and birds, but not for other major taxa, nor for these key regulating ecosystem services. China’s nature reserves encompass 15.1% of the country’s land surface. They capture 17.9% and 16.4% of the entire habitat area for threatened mammals and birds, but only 13.1% for plants, 10.0% for amphibians, and 8.5% for reptiles. Nature reserves encompass only 10.2–12.5% of the source areas for the four key regulating services. They are concentrated in western China, whereas much threatened species’ habitat and regulating service source areas occur in eastern provinces. Our analysis illuminates a strategy for greatly strengthening PAs, through creating the first comprehensive national park system of China. This would encompass both nature reserves, in which human activities are highly restricted, and a new category of PAs for ecosystem services, in which human activities not impacting key services are permitted. This could close the gap in a politically feasible way. We also propose a new category of PAs globally, for sustaining the provision of ecosystems services and achieving sustainable development goals.

scholarly journals Emergy Analysis and Ecological Spillover as Tools to Quantify Ecological Compensation in Xuchang City, Qingyi River Basin, China

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 414
Author(s):  
Huiqin Li ◽  
Cuimei Lv ◽  
Minhua Ling ◽  
Changkuan Gu ◽  
Yang Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Emergy Analysis ◽  
Ecological Compensation ◽  
Freshwater Resources ◽  
Ecological Protection ◽  
Complex Relationships

As an effective means to coordinate cost–benefit allocation of ecological protection between upstream and downstream cities, ecological compensation is often used to improve collaborative basin-wide freshwater resources management. Yet, due to the complex relationships between upstream and downstream ecosystem services, calculating eco-compensation is not an easy task. We used ecological spillover (the amount of local ecosystem services not used in the region and thus flows to downstream areas) and emergy analysis to determine the amount of eco-compensation that the city of Xuchang should pay to the upstream city of Xinzheng (Qingyi River Basin, China) from 2010 to 2014. Eco-compensation was determined by deducting the emergy of the local, self-supplied ecosystem services of Xuchang City, calculated using an ecological-water-footprint-based analysis, from the emergy of the total ecosystem services used in Xuchang, and monetized accordingly. The results showed that the self-supplied ecosystem services decreased from 2010 to 2014 and, thus, Xuchang relied more on the ecological spillover services flowing from Xinzheng. As a result, eco-compensation increased from 990 million Chinese Yuan (¥) in 2010 to ¥509 billion in 2014, mostly due to increased demands for water purification and reduced precipitation around Xuchang. This method can be further enhanced by introducing larger datasets and can be replicated elsewhere to accurately determine ecological compensation, ensuring basin-wide collaboration towards the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

Agricultural operation mode selection and development mechanism in ecological fragile areas under the background of china’s rural revitalization

2021 ◽  
pp. 002072092098505
Author(s):  
Haijuan Yang ◽  
Xiwu Hu
Keyword(s):  
Central Government ◽  
Mode Selection ◽  
Operation Mode ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Land Rent ◽  
Ecological Civilization ◽  
Operation Modes ◽  
Ecological Protection ◽  
Rural Revitalization ◽  
Agricultural Operation

Ecological civilization construction and rural revitalization is a strategic decision made by the central government to solve the problems of ecological protection and rural sustainable poverty alleviation. At present, the dominant agricultural operation modes in China can be roughly divided into three types: family farm mode, agricultural enterprise mode and cooperative mode. Practice has proved that different agricultural operation modes have different effects. In ecological fragile areas, how to adopt agricultural operation modes can not only promote agricultural prosperity and increase farmers' income, but also protect the ecological environment and promote the coordinated development of ecology and economy needs further analysis. Based on the current rural revitalization strategy and ecological protection background, this paper analyzes the operation mechanism of agricultural operation mode from the principal-agent and ecological land rent theory, and analyzes the development dimensions of advantageous agriculture of various modes. On the basis of rural and farmers, this paper provides references for the selection of agricultural operation mode in different regions. There are many factors that need to be considered in the choice of agricultural operation mode in ecological fragile area. In the future, each region should conduct analysis and treatment according to its own actual situation.

scholarly journals Ecosystem services for connecting actors – lessons from a symposium

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Opdam ◽  
Christian Albert ◽  
Christine Fürst ◽  
Adrienne Grêt-Regamey ◽  
Janina Kleemann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Open Science ◽  
Collaborative Relationships ◽  
Assessment Design ◽  
Actual Nature ◽  
Individual Actor ◽  
And Gender

AbstractThis paper is a communication from the corresponding symposium at the Global Land Project Open Science Meeting, Berlin, March 2014. We explored the assumption that the ecosystem services-(ES) concept has the potential to support communication and collaboration between actors in land use planning. If true, the concept could facilitate collaborative planning processes. We analyse how to evolve a planning context in which governance networks at the local landscape level gain importance in decision making, while the central government delegates power. From case studies presented during the symposium we learned that the ES-concept has been explored for application in local land use planning around the world. However, whether ES are recognized as a useful planning concept depends on individual actor preferences and cultural and contextual factors, such as the actual nature-human relationship and gender differences. Also, successful application requires the support of novel assessment, design and visualization tools, which are designed to foster collaboration and social learning. The potential of the concept to contribute to collaborative relationships needs further investigation.

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