Abstract
Context
The downlisting of giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) from Endangered to Vulnerable in IUCN Red List confirms the effectiveness of current conservation practices. However, future survival of giant panda is still in jeopardy due to habitat fragmentation and climate change. Maintaining movement corridors between habitat patches in the newly established Giant Panda National Park (GPNP) is the key for the long-term sustainability of the species.
Objectives
We evaluated the impacts of conversion from natural forest to plantation on giant panda habitat connectivity, which is permitted within collective forests and encouraged by the policies for the economic benefits of local communities. We modeled distribution of giant panda habitat in Minshan Mountains which harbors its largest population, and delineated movement corridors between core habitat patches under management scenarios of different forest conversion proportions.
Methods
We applied an integrated species distribution model based on inhomogeneous Poisson point process to combine presence-only data and site occupancy data, and least-cost models to identify potential movement corridors between core habitat patches.
Results
We found that current distribution of plantation has not damaged connectivity between core habitat patches of giant panda. However, it could be severely degraded if mass conversion occurred. Since the GPNP incorporates all the core habitats identified from our model, controlling natural forest conversion inside GPNP would maintain the movement corridors for giant panda.
Conclusions
We recommend no expansion of plantations inside the GPNP, and improving collective forest management for expansion of ecological forest in adjoining habitat patches.
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Acknowledgements
We received great support from the local forestry agency and nature reserves. We thank the Forest and Grassland Department of Sichuan Province and Pingwu Forest Bureau for their administrative support to this study. We thank Dr. Shaoying Liu from Sichuan Academy of Forestry and Dr. Yuanbin Zhang from Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment (IMHE), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu. Talking with them are very helpful to understand the giant panda habitat in our study area. We appreciate the help of Xiaoli Shen from Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences; her advices after reading our paper improved the text. A great number of field staff from Wanglang, Laohegou, Xiaohegou, Tangjiahe and Jiuzhaigou nature reserves participated in the camera-trapping surveys. We express special gratitude to Chunping Luo, Xianghui Chen, Weichao Zheng, Wanli Chen, Chunping Liang, Yong Zheng, Hong’ou Sun, Qingsong Li, Wei Tang, Zhengxu Xue for their excellent job in assisting us in data collection. Our research was financially supported by the Biodiversity Survey and Assessment Project of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, China (Grant No. 2019HJ2096001006), Peking University, Smithsonian Institution, Friends of the National Zoological Park, and Hongkong Ocean Park Conservation Foundation.
Funding
Our research was financially supported by Peking University, Smithsonian Institution, Friends of the National Zoological Park, Hongkong Ocean Park Conservation Foundation, and the Biodiversity Survey and Assessment Project of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, China (Grant No. 2019HJ2096001006).
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WJM, SL, DW, and SJ contributed to the study conception. HB, SL, and WJM worked on study design. HB did the field work and data collection and processing with input from SL, LY, FZ, YC and XG. HB worked on data analysis with help from all authors. The first draft of the manuscript was written by HB and WJM, and was then reviewed and edited by DW, SL and FW. WJM and SL acquired funding for the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Bu, H., McShea, W.J., Wang, D. et al. Not all forests are alike: the role of commercial forest in the conservation of landscape connectivity for the giant panda. Landscape Ecol 36, 2549–2564 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01262-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01262-2