Is Expansion or Regulation more Critical for Existing Protected Areas? A Case Study on China’s Eco-Redline Policy in Chongqing Capital

Benhui Zhu,Shizuka Hashimoto

doi:10.3390/land10101084

Abstract

Protecting areas of important ecological value is one of the main approaches to safeguarding the Earth’s ecosystems. However, the long-term effectiveness of protected areas is often uncertain. Focusing on China’s ecological conservation redline policy (Eco-redline policy) introduced in recent years, this study attempted to examine the effectiveness of alternative policy interventions and their implications on future land-use and land-cover (LULC) patterns. A scenario analysis was employed to elucidate the implications of different policy interventions for Chongqing capital, one of the most representative cities in China. These interventions considered the spatial extent of Eco-redline areas (ERAs) and the management intensity within these areas. LULC data for two different periods from 2000 (first year) to 2010 (end year) were derived from satellite images and then used for future (2050) LULC projections, incorporating the various policy interventions. Furthermore, several landscape indices, including the shape complexity, contrast, and aggregation of forest patches were calculated for each scenario. After comparing the scenarios, our analysis suggests that the current extent of ERAs may not be sufficient, although their management intensity is. Therefore, we suggest that during the optimization of the Eco-redline policy, ERAs are gradually increased while maintaining their current management intensity.

Highlights

The establishment of protected areas is a means of maintaining biodiversity while assuring the sustainable provision of ecosystem services [1,2,3]
This study employed scenario analysis to explore the impact of a protected area policy on land-use and land-cover (LULC) in an area with rapid economic development to assess policy implications for further improvement
We mainly analyzed the impact of two dimensions, area and management intensity, on LULC

Summary

Introduction

The establishment of protected areas is a means of maintaining biodiversity while assuring the sustainable provision of ecosystem services [1,2,3]. An updated target, increasing these protected areas to 30% by 2030, has been proposed in the first drafts of the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties [5] and could be recommended as a new deal for humans and nature. The debate over the necessary proportion of protected areas seems likely to persist because of the complexity of the recommendations provided by studies with different spatiotemporal patterns and selection methods and focus on different ecological processes. A recent review indicated that the protected area coverage called for by previous studies has a large range (30–70%) at a global level [6]

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Conclusion