Global biodiversity is declining rapidly, posing a severe threat to ecosystem functions and services. Use of Protected Areas (PAs) can be extremely effective in protecting biodiversity, but conservation gaps arise as PAs are not well-established globally. We used emerging approaches, including the Habitat Quality module in the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services Tradeoffs model (InVEST), and the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) model to assess a protected area in Xishuangbanna tropical area, China. the MaxEnt model was applied to predict species spatial pattern, with the model driven by a collection of species records and data on environmental variables. The InVEST model was then used to simulate local species habitat distribution caused by threats and vulnerability to land use change. The aim was to identify conservation priorities for new comprehensive PAs and ensure that endangered species are effectively protected.
Results/Conclusions
The results revealed a key conservation gap of 1277.88 km2 (6.67% of the total area of Xishuangbanna), indicating that existing PAs do not offer adequate protection for local biodiversity. And this gap called for well-targeted organized planning, which needs to meet obligations and objectives of international agreements and delineating of scientific interventions for protecting the key habitats of the endangered plant species. We created maps of conservation gaps of biodiversity hotspots, for the important task of biodiversity monitoring. We also identified a need for incorporating reliable monitoring networks into global biodiversity assessment and conservation.