Individual-level performance of nature reserves in forest protection and the effects of management level and establishment age

Abstract

Many studies have evaluated the overall effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) in halting deforestation from a perspective of the entire PA system. However, few studies assess PA performance at an individual level, and investigate the effects of management level and establishment age of PAs. With nature reserves (NRs) in southwest China as the case, we set an independent control area (CA) for each NR 10-km away from its boundary to avoid the spillover effect. Forested pixels at least 300 m apart were then sampled within each NR and its CA. We applied the Propensity Score Matching method with five control variables to balance the heterogeneity of land characteristics between NR and CA sample pixels. Based on the matched samples for each NR, the individual effectiveness of 137 NRs between 2001 and 2012 was quantified. We then compared the effects of NRs with different management levels (national and provincial) and establishment ages (designated between 1981–1990 and 1991–2000) by means of nonparametric test and statistical inference. We found that approximately 63% of the NRs suffered less deforestation within their boundaries than in adjacent CAs. National NRs were more effective than provincial NRs in curbing deforestation, but age had little bearing on the effectiveness of NRs. Our results revealed that NRs could play a prominent role in the greening trends of southwest China. This study offers the first individual-level assessment on NR effectiveness for forest protection in southwest China, which helps provide a more solid support for promoting effective NR management.