Determination of conservation priority areas in Qinghai Tibet Plateau based on ecosystem services. Issue 124 (October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Yi; Wang, Xiaofeng; Yin, Lichang; Feng, Xiaoming; Zhou, Chaowei; Han, Ling; Lü, Yihe
• Is Part Of: Environmental science & policy. Issue 124(2021)
• Page Start: 553
• Page End: 566
• Publication Date: 2021-10
• Subjects: Ecosystem service -- Multi-criteria decision making -- Qinghai Tibet Plateau -- Third pole national park group scheme -- Conservation priority areas; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Periodicals; Environnement -- Politique gouvernementale -- Périodiques; Sciences de l'environnement -- Périodiques; Environmental policy; Environmental sciences; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 363.70561
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2021.07.019
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1462-9011

Abstract

Highlights: Conservation priority areas (CPAs) was established by balancing ecosystem services. Multi-criteria based CPAs selection was reliably verified by using single strategies. In the CPAs, 4 services can achieve high conservation efficiencies simultaneously. Under the workflow of the study, the proportion of biodiversity can be improved. Various vegetation should be taken into account for future ecological management. Abstract: Facing rapid ecological degradation in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau (QTP), the determination of priority areas for conservation (CPAs) based on ecosystem services (ESs) is a key step for nature conservation and sustainable development. However, the trade-off between services makes the plan of maintaining protected areas (PAs) a challenge. In this study, by quantifying a variety of essential ESs in the QTP from 2000 to 2015, we used the multi-criteria ordered weighted average method to balance the trade-offs and determine the key CPAs for ES conservation. We found that the multi-criteria based selection of CPAs leads to higher (1.35) and more balanced ES protection efficiency (PE) than the single strategy. The CPAs obtained based on the logical framework of this paper are mainly located in the southeastern QTP and cover an area of 12.78 % of the QTP (330, 124.76 km 2 ). The comprehensive PE of ES was 1.68, and the PE of carbon storage, water yield, soil conservation, and cultural service were 2.20, 2.17, 4.54, and 1.59, respectively. Additionally, compared with the existing PA settings, our results can increase the proportion of biodiversity of amphibians and birds by more than 12 %. The framework of CPAs selection in this paper can provide a reference for the government's growing nature conservation affairs, which will contribute to sustainable development.