State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Feb 11;19(4):2044. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19042044.
The conservation of World Natural Heritage Sites has become a global concern. The identification of priority conservation areas can preserve the value of heritage sites while promoting sustainable development, which is important for balancing the conservation and development of heritage sites. This paper proposes an integrated framework for the identification of priority conservation areas for natural heritage sites based on landscape ecological risks (LERs) and ecosystem services (ESs), taking the Bogda heritage site in Xinjiang, China as a case study. The innovative approach combined the natural and cultural elements of natural heritage sites and included the following steps: (1) the LER index, Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model and questionnaire method were adopted to assess the LERs and ESs of Bogda heritage sites during 1990-2018; (2) ordered weighted averaging (OWA) was used to identify conservation priorities by weighing LERs and ESs; and (3) the optimal priority conservation area was determined by comparing the conservation efficiencies under different scenarios. The results revealed that the LER, carbon storage (CS), habitat quality (HQ), aesthetic value (AV), and recreational value (RV) showed significant spatiotemporal variation. The most suitable priority conservation area was located at the central forestlands and high-coverage grasslands, with conservation efficiencies of 1.16, 2.91, 1.96, 1.03, and 1.21 for LER, CS, HQ, AV, and RV, respectively. Our study demonstrated that integrating LERs and ESs is a comprehensive and effective approach to identifying conservation priorities for heritage sites. The results can provide decision support for the conservation of the Bogda heritage site and a methodological reference for identifying conservation priorities for natural heritage sites. Furthermore, this study is also an effective application of LERs and ESs in identifying priority conservation areas.
世界自然遗产地的保护已成为全球关注的焦点。确定重点保护区域可以在促进可持续发展的同时保护遗产地的价值，这对于平衡遗产地的保护与发展至关重要。本文提出了一个基于景观生态风险（LER）和生态系统服务（ES）的自然遗产地重点保护区域识别的综合框架，以中国新疆博格达遗产地为例。该创新方法结合了自然遗产地的自然和文化要素，包括以下步骤：（1）采用 LER 指数、综合生态系统服务和权衡评估（InVEST）模型和问卷调查方法，评估 1990-2018 年博格达遗产地的 LER 和 ES；（2）采用有序加权平均（OWA）方法，通过权衡 LER 和 ES 来识别保护优先级；（3）通过比较不同情景下的保护效率来确定最佳的优先保护区域。结果表明，LER、碳储存（CS）、生境质量（HQ）、美学价值（AV）和游憩价值（RV）呈现出显著的时空变化。最适宜的优先保护区域位于中心林地和高覆盖草地，其 LER、CS、HQ、AV 和 RV 的保护效率分别为 1.16、2.91、1.96、1.03 和 1.21。本研究表明，整合 LER 和 ES 是识别遗产地保护优先级的一种全面有效的方法。研究结果可为博格达遗产地的保护提供决策支持，为自然遗产地保护优先级的确定提供方法参考。此外，本研究也是 LER 和 ES 在确定优先保护区域中的有效应用。
