Gap Analysis Of Forest Vegetation And Key Species In Northwest China

Nature Reserve has played an important role in biodiversity conservation, and is the most effective means to protect natural resources and endangered wildlife under the current conditions. Northwest China has initially built up the nature reserve system with large amounts, wide range and great variety of types. However, there is still a blank in the research on gap analysis and evaluation of conservation status for this region.The work presented in this paper focused on the gap analysis, evaluation of protection effectiveness and status by studying and collecting the relevant literature and data, the main conclusions and results are as follows:(1) The existing national nature reserves have showed a significant protective effectiveness through covering most of the key species in Northwest China. The protected key animal and plant species respectively account for 89.4% and 81.6% of their total amounts.(2) There are still protective gaps in the existing nature reserve system. Untill now, there are 8 types of forest vegetation, 22 kinds of key animal species and 8 classes of key plant species left to be unprotected, as well as part of the forest vegetation and key species are less protected. These protection gaps are mainly distributed in Xinjiang, Gansu, Shanxi, especially in Xinjiang, which has more conservation gaps on the large scale.(3) National nature reserves need to enforce their protection on key plant species. With the national nature reserves increasing in number and area, the key animals and plants, which have been protected, are increasing linearly and gradually. The area of national nature reserve has more closely relationship with the key animals than with the key plants.(4) It is particularly necessary to adjust and improve the national nature reserve system furhter.To achieve this, it should be proposed that such measures as establishment or adjustment to coverage gaps as soon as possible, and in particular, attentions to the effect of small-scale nature reserves and protected sites should also be payed. Meanwhile, the nature reserve's management needs to be earnestly strengthened by effectively enhancing the level of managing and conserving, which helps in forming a comprehensive nature reserve system with multi-protection in purpose and different conservation degree as well as a rational distribution.