Identifying And Protection Efficiency Analysis Of Species And Ecosystem Priority Conservation Areas In Yunnan Province

The disturbance caused by human society accelerates the reduction of biodiversity,identifies the priority areas through the system protection planning method,and puts limited protection resources into the areas worth protecting to maximize the protection benefits is an important way to effectively curb the rate of biodiversity reduction.Yunnan Province is one of the hotspots of global biodiversity conservation.Yunnan has the world's richest and most unique biodiversity,which has attracted the attention of global research.Yunnan Province has established a relatively reasonable layout and a relatively comprehensive type of protected area system,but there are still protection gap.The research on the priority conservation areas(PCAs)can provide a scientific basis for the improvement of Yunnan's protected area system.In addition,in the case of a lack of data,the choice of Surrogate is a key issue in identifying PCAs based on the theory and method of System Conservation Planning(SCP).a representative Surrogate is used to identify the priority conservation areas and carry out protection efficiency assessment,which provides a scientific reference for guiding the optimization of the protected area system.This study takes Yunnan Province as an example.Based on the theory and method of System Conservation Planning,the two levels of biodiversity of key protected species(animals and plants habitat)and ecosystems(sub-vegetation types)are selected as surrogates,combined with Human Disturbance Index(HDI),based on the System Conservation Planning model Marxan identifies the Animal and Plant Priority Conservation Areas(APPCAs)and the Vegetation Priority Conservation Areas(VPCAs),and carried out the protection efficiency analysis of the two priority conservation areas.Determine the preferred priority conservation areas mode,and then conduct a gap analysis in Yunnan Province to guide the optimization and improvement of the protected area system.This study has the following conclusions:(1)The areas with high plant potential richness in Yunnan Province are mainly distributed in the northwestern-western-southern-southeastern of Yunnan,with a shape similar to a semi-ring along the border,while the areas with high animal species potential richness are mainly distributed in western-southwestern-northeastern of Yunnan.There are differences in the spatial distribution patterns of protected animals and protected plants,and the two cannot substitute each other;(2)Animal and Plant Priority Conservation Areas and Vegetation Priority Conservation Areas are mainly distributed in northwestern Yunnan,western Yunnan,southern Yunnan,central Yunnan and some southeastern Yunnan and northeastern Yunnan.Animal and Plant Priority Conservation Areas are distributed along rivers,and the spatial distribution of Vegetation Priority Conservation Areas is scattered.(3)The spatial distribution characteristics of Animal and Plant Priority Conservation Areas and Vegetation Priority Conservation Areas are similar to those proposed by Yunnan Province and Zhang et al.The spatial similarity between Animal and Plant Priority Conservation Areas and those priority conservation areas proposed by Yunnan Province and Zhang et al is higher than that of Vegetation Priority Conservation Areas;(4)The coverage of Animal and Plant Priority Conservation Areas on Sub-ecoregions,Sub-vegetation Types,protected species habitats and biogeographic regions is higher than that of Vegetation Priority Conservation Areas.Animal and Plant Priority Conservation Areas based on protected species identification can more include protection objects of Vegetation Priority Conservation Areas.Animal and Plant Priority Conservation Areas are more ecologically representative and reflect higher protection efficiency;(5)Selecting Animal and Plant Priority Conservation Areas and Yunnan Province's protected area system for gap analysis,protecting the vacant area accounting for 87.69%of the total area of Animal and Plant Priority Conservation Areas,there is a large conservation gaps.This study combines conservation gaps and Human Disturbance Index spatial distribution to propose related protection strategies.For example,it is necessary to strengthen the construction of protected areas in the Biluo Snow Mountain in western Yunnan,the Nangun River and Xishuangbanna tropical rain forest area in southern Yunnan,the Wuliang Mountain and the Ailao Mountain in the middle of Yunnan.