Analysis of the contribution to conservation and effectiveness of the wetland reserve network in China based on wildlife diversity

Abstract

Protected areas are among the most effective methods for conserving biodiversity and huge systems of protected areas have been constructed in many parts of the world. However, the coverage of the existing protected area network is inadequate and it is biased toward many species in various biological groups and ecosystems. In this study, we used a gap analysis to evaluate the contribution to conservation and effectiveness of the wetland reserve network in China by focusing on 216 national key protected species and 129 endangered wild animal species, where we compared the differences between wetland National Nature Reserves and National Wetland Parks. The results showed that a wetland National Nature Reserve and National Wetland Park network have been constructed in China and they have gradually increased in size, where the wildlife conservation efficacy is high and the proportion protected has increased. However, the percentage of protected wild animals has tended to stabilize in recent years at significantly less than 80%. Moreover, the protection of rare and endangered animals is not effective in the wetland National Nature Reserves and National Wetland Parks. In general, wetland National Nature Reserves that contain many more national key protected animals and endangered animals than the National Wetland Parks play more important roles in the conservation of wildlife. Furthermore, most of the national key protected animal species (77.3%) and 47.3% of endangered animals are protected and managed in the existing wetland National Nature Reserves and National Wetland Parks. However, numerous sea animals and some smaller animals are neglected, thus their protection is ineffective. A proportion of wild animal species are still unprotected by the protected wetland system, particularly species that belong to Caudata, Anura, Testudines, Cetacea, Falconiformes, Strigiformes, Pelecaniformes, Ciconiiformes, and Coraciiformes.