Hua Ting, Zhao Wenwu, Cherubini Francesco, Hu Xiangping, Pereira Paulo
State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Institute of Land Surface System and Sustainable Development, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Institute of Land Surface System and Sustainable Development, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2023 May 15;873:162345. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162345. Epub 2023 Feb 21.
Protected areas (PAs) are considered essential for maintaining biodiversity. Several governments would like to strengthen the management levels of their PAs (as shorthand for a hierarchy in PA administrative governance) to consolidate their conservation effectiveness. This upgrade (e.g., from provincial- to national-level PAs) means stricter protection and increased funds for PA management. However, confirming whether such an upgrade can produce the expected positive outcomes is key given limited conservation funds. Here, we used the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method to quantify the impacts of upgrading PAs (i.e., from provincial to national) on vegetation growth on the Tibetan Plateau (TP). We found that the impacts of PA's upgrading can be divided into two impact types: 1) curbed or reversed declines in conservation effectiveness and 2) rapidly increased conservation effectiveness before the upgrade. These results indicate that the PA's upgrading process (including the pre-upgrade operations) can improve PA effectiveness. Nevertheless, the gains did not always occur after the official upgrade. This study demonstrated that in comparison to other PAs, those with more resources or stronger management policies were more effective.
保护区被认为对维护生物多样性至关重要。一些政府希望加强其保护区的管理水平（作为保护区行政管理层次的简称），以巩固其保护成效。这种升级（例如，从省级保护区到国家级保护区）意味着更严格的保护以及增加用于保护区管理的资金。然而，鉴于保护资金有限，确认这种升级是否能产生预期的积极成果是关键。在此，我们使用倾向得分匹配（PSM）方法来量化保护区升级（即从省级到国家级）对青藏高原植被生长的影响。我们发现，保护区升级的影响可分为两种影响类型：1）遏制或扭转保护成效的下降；2）在升级前迅速提高保护成效。这些结果表明，保护区的升级过程（包括升级前的操作）可以提高保护区的成效。尽管如此，收益并非总是在正式升级后出现。这项研究表明，与其他保护区相比，资源更多或管理政策更强的保护区更有效。
