Optimizing the Giant Panda National Park's zoning designations as an example for extending conservation from flagship species to regional biodiversity

Abstract

Informed zoning of protected areas to designate where certain activities can take place is important to their success. The conventional strategy has been to design protected areas based on flagship species; however, this has often proven ineffective for protecting other sympatric wildlife. Here, using China's Giant Panda National Park (GPNP) as an example, we evaluated the effectiveness of integrating multiple conservation parameters for flagship and sympatric endangered species to optimize zoning designations, without compromising or jeopardizing the primary goal of protecting giant pandas. We conducted a stepwise spatial prioritization according to taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity for 48 endangered bird and 23 mammal species. Conservation priority areas for each taxon were spatially congruent across diversity indices but differed between taxa. Species richness provided only a weak indicator of conservation values. The current designation scheme for giant panda protection performs moderately well in terms of sheltering sympatric endangered birds and mammals, but there is still scope for improvement. After balancing competing land uses, we identified 7731 km2 with the highest conservation values across taxa and diversity indices, with 26 % of this optimal priority area lying outside of current core protection zones of the GPNP. We recommend that GPNP's current zoning designation criteria are modified to conserve a broader range of species alongside giant pandas, especially to better protect sites from human disturbance. Our findings also have the broader potential to inform conservation planning for protected areas worldwide, enabling the protection of flagship species to be integrated with broader regional biodiversity conservation.