Assessing conservation efforts against threats to wild orchids in China

Abstract

Orchids are of special interest to plant conservationists because of their high species diversity as well as their obligate dependencies on one or more biotic interactions, which often pose additional challenges in their conservation. In this study, we analyze threats to all known Chinese orchid species and evaluate whether current in situ and ex situ conservation efforts match these threats. Of the 1582 orchids included in this study, 653 (43.5%) were categorized as threatened (i.e., critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable), 191 (12.0%) were traded using wild-collected plants, 531 (33.6%) were Chinese endemics, 826 (52.2%) were found in one or more protected areas, 802 (50.7%) were in ex-situ collections, 136 (8.4%) had seeds in storage; and only 43 (2.7%) were subject to conservation translocation actions within China. Proportionally, more threatened species were protected in situ and ex situ than non-threatened species. However, the current version of the Chinese Redlist assessment assigned over harvesting as a threat factor to 15 Chinese orchids only (2.3%), a gross underestimation of this threat considering both the Chinese and international orchid markets. We propose establishing small nature reserves to protect wild orchid species that do not currently occur in any protected area, creating ex situ collection networks to strengthen conservation capacity (including institutions that are concerned with utilization only), and establishing a dynamic list of wild orchids in trade, along with trade volumes, to better-gauge conservation threats posed by wild harvest.