Biodiversity And Its Conservation In Habaxueshan Nature Reserve, Yunnan, China

As the basis for all ecosystem services, and the foundation for truly sustainable development, biodiversity plays fundamental roles in maintaining and enhancing the well-being of the worlds. The expansion of human living space, however, has caused and is accelerating the losses of biodiversity, which lead to the reduction of ecosystem service and has imposed far-reaching influence on the global sustainable development. It is generally accepted that in situ conservation by establishing nature reserve was the most effective way for conserving of biodiversity and endangered species, and fully understanding on the characteristic and the value of biodiversity is rationale for effective management of the nature reserve.Habaxueshan nature reserve located in the northwest Yunnan in middle-upper reaches of the Changjiang River, and the ecological location of the nature reserve is important for it is a significance component part of the"Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region of Southwest China"and the World Heritage"Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas"which known for biodiversity richness. The current status and the spatial variability of biodiversity along the environmental gradients in the nature reserve were studied in this paper at three levels (species, ecosystem and landscape). And the reasonable functional zoning as well as the management and sustainable use of nature reserve's biodiversity were proposed based on the analysis of the value of biodiversity and Its conservation status.Main results of this study are as follow:(1)The forest ecosystems in the nature reserve has been well protected and It has rich species diversity which includes: 1082 vascular plant species of 431 genera, 123 families; 102 mammal of 72 genera, 31families; 186 birds of 32 families and 27 species of amphibians and reptiles of 18 genera, 12 families. 44 of abovementioned species were included in the national list of protected animals and plants, and 50 species were included in the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) Appendicesâ… a ndâ… . The nature reserve also bring out its uniqueness and significance of biodiversity to the best advantage for Its 14 nature reserve endemic species and relative rich of endemic species of the northwest Yunnan and that of the"Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region of Southwest China". The relative aboundance of species varied greatly between different ecosystems for the interaction of elevational and areas elements, vascular plant, mammals are positively correlated to ecosystems areas while the birds,amphibians and reptiles show no significant correlation. The study also found the positive correlation between the richness of mammal, bird and vascular plant, while the richness of amphibians and reptiles, which mainly distributed in low altitudinal areas show no significant correlation with the richness of vascular plant. The study also showed that the percentage of rare and endangered species as well as endemic species are relative higher in high elevational ecosystems, and that implied the value of alpine ecosystems in biodiversity conservation.(2)The vegetation of the nature reserve could be grouped into 28 formations of 13 vegetation sub-types , 7 vegetation types by combining the results of field survey and quantitative methods. The nature reserve preserved various vegetation types from the hot-warm valley shrub to alpine talus vegetation which formed a typical examples of vertical vegetation distribution pattern along the altitudinal gradient. The altitudinal patterns species richness as well as the diversity indexes of plant communities were mainly influenced by the"Mid-Domain Effect"and presents a single hump-shaped pattern in general, while the indexes shows fluctuation in mid-elevation zone. The altitudinal pattern of plant diversity in nature reserve present complicate feature which indicated that the diversity of micro-habitat, and the complecation also manifested by the alternative distribution and substitution effect of plant communities in the nature reserve.(3)The richness of landscapes in the nature reserve were rather high and could be classified into 18 landscape types, 9 landscape classes of 1 landscape category. And the dominant landscape in the nature reserve is various forests which play a decisive roles on the landscape feature to a great extent, and can be regarded as the matrix of the landscape structure in the nature reserve. Analysis of landscape pattern showed that the landscape in south slope, which covers all types from valley shrub to live glacier, were more complicated and fragmented than that of the north slope which dominant by relative intact forest patch. However, the landscapes pattern in both north and south slopes present same alternative distribution features. The analysis also showed that the continuity and homogeneity of Pinus yunnanensis and Abies georgei forest landscapes as well as the alpine meadow and live glacier landscapes patchs are higher than other types in the nature reserve. And most of the landscape types in valley areas, such as agricultural, mining and local villages landscapes present higher fragmentation. The analysis of landscape dispersion in the nature reserve indicated that the most dispersed landscape is alpine lakes landscapes, and the dispersion of mining and local villages also relatively higher, while the Pinus yunnanensis and Abies georgei forest landscapes presents minimum dispersion.(4)The economic value of biodiversity in the nature reserve can be divided into three main areas according to classification systems proposed by Xue-Dayun in 1999: direct use value (DUV,include direct material value and direct non-material value), indirect use value (IUV,ecosystem services value mainly ) and Non-use value (NUV, include: option value, bequest value and existence value). And the evaluation showed that the DUV, IUV and NUV of biodiversity in the nature reserve are 25.53 , 1718.33 and 1.11 millions respectively. The percentage of IUV is much higher than that of DUV, and that indicate the public goods feature of biodiversity and external economic of biodiversity value. Additionally, a few improvement concerning the contents and methods for biodiversity evaluation in nature reserve were suggested in this study. We evaluated the value of carbon stock and annually carbon sequestration instead of the timber value to avoid some duplications in evaluation items, and the biodiversity value concerning species and genetic resources conservation were evaluated not only for forest but for all ecosytems in nature reserve.(5) The management status of the nature reserve was evaluated using the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) developed by WCPA. And the results indicated that Habaxueshan nature reserve has clear legal status, and necessary budget for routine management of the biological resources.And the biodiversity, ecological and cultural value of the nature reserve has being protected intactly. Main threats and limitations that influence the effictive management of the nature reserve include unreasonable boundary and functional zooning; insufficient infrastructure and equipment need for management; lack of qualified staffs to manage the protected area and law enforcement; and communities inside or adjacent to nature reserve were highly relied on the nature resources etc.. Main strategies for improving the management of the nature reserve were proposed in this study in accordance with threats and limitations.