Prioritizing ecological conservation strategies to enhance national ecological connectivity in China

Abstract

The decline of ecological connectivity poses a challenge for China as it faces a continuous loss of biodiversity. However, this phenomenon also increases the country’s natural reserves and afforestation area. With the approval of the national plan for combating climate change and the implementation of the “ecological redline” policy, there is an opportunity to improve China’s eco-connectivity with significant investments available for a continuous ecological restoration. However, little research has been conducted with respect to ecological connectivity, thus preventing policy makers from allocating a central investment between provinces for ecological restoration. This study modelled the resistance map against connectivity conservation by quantifying indicators of human disturbance and subsequently derived the national eco-corridor network by using least-cost path methods. A total of 2790 potential eco-corridors, connecting 97% of the protected areas in continental China were extracted. The paper ranked the importance of each eco-corridor for maintaining national ecological connectivity and identified the pinch points with high resistance. Based on the national eco-corridor framework, this paper proposed a two-dimensional coded table to help policy makers conduct effective management. The table also develops scenarios to aid decision makers in allocating central investments in provinces. By prioritizing ecological restoration to enhance ecological connectivity, the established eco-corridor network and scenario analysis will contribute to biodiversity conservation in China. This paper gives policy suggestions on cross-border management and plan implementation of eco-corridors, which helps decision makers in working towards ecological protection in China.