Guopeng Ren

Effectiveness of China’s National Forest Protection Program and Nature Reserves

There is profound interest in knowing the degree to which Chinas institutions are capable of protecting its natural forests and biodiversity in the face of economic and political change. Chinas 2 most important forest-protection policies are its National Forest Protection Program (NFPP) and its national-level nature reserves (NNRs). The NFPP was implemented in 2000 in response to deforestation-caused flooding. We undertook the first national, quantitative assessment of the NFPP and NNRs to examine whether the NFPP achieved its deforestation-reduction target and whether the NNRs deter deforestation altogether. We used MODIS data to estimate forest cover and loss across mainland China (2000-2010). We also assembled the first-ever polygon dataset for Chinas forested NNRs (n = 237, 74,030 km(2) in 2000) and used both conventional and covariate-matching approaches to compare deforestation rates inside and outside NNRs (2000-2010). In 2000, 1.765 million km(2) or 18.7% of mainland China was forested (12.3% with canopy cover of ≥70%)) or woodland (6.4% with canopy cover <70% and tree plus shrub cover ≥40%). By 2010, 480,203 km(2) of forest and woodland had been lost, an annual deforestation rate of 2.7%. Forest-only loss was 127,473 km(2) (1.05% annually). In the NFPP provinces, the forest-only loss rate was 0.62%, which was 3.3 times lower than in the non-NFPP provinces. Moreover, the Landsat data suggest that these loss rates are overestimates due to large MODIS pixel size. Thus, China appears to have achieved, and even exceeded, its target of reducing deforestation to 1.1% annually in the NFPP provinces. About two-thirds of Chinas NNRs were effective in protecting forest cover (prevented loss 4073 km(2) unmatched approach; 3148 km(2) matched approach), and within-NNR deforestation rates were higher in provinces with higher overall deforestation. Our results indicate that Chinas existing institutions can protect domestic forest cover.

Habitat Degradation and Conservation Status Assessment of Gallinaceous Birds in the Trans-Himalayas, China

Abstract The greatest concentration of Chinese Galliformes occurs in the Trans-Himalayas. We selected 4 northwestern Yunnan counties (Lijiang, Shangri-la, Deqin, and Weixi) in the Trans-Himalayas to assess the conservation status of 9 gallinaceous forest birds. We developed maps depicting recent forest cover and modeled habitat availability of each gallinaceous forest bird based on 3 factors that restrict its distribution: geographic location, elevation range, and forest coverage. The conservation status of 4 species was inadequate, because <10% of their respective potential habitats were within existing nature reserves. To predict the historic habitats of the species we studied, we also delineated a forest map from the late 1950s. We calculated the loss and fragmentation of potential habitats within the past 40 years as degree of habitat degradation. Our results showed that all 9 species became reduced and fragmented of their potential habitats from the late 1950s to 2002. Assessing habitat degradation and conservation status of wild species could help identify the threatened species with poor protection and degraded habitats, thereby warranting more attention in future conservation strategies. To protect those threatened species, it is urgent that the government should design new nature reserves to fill the conservation gaps, and enlarge and strengthen the management of existing natural reserves to reduce effects of human activities on their habitats.

A citizen data-based approach to predictive mapping of spatial variation of natural phenomena

The vast accumulation of environmental data and the rapid development of geospatial visualization and analytical techniques make it possible for scientists to solicit information from local citizens to map spatial variation of geographic phenomena. However, data provided by citizens (referred to as citizen data in this article) suffer two limitations for mapping: bias in spatial coverage and imprecision in spatial location. This article presents an approach to minimizing the impacts of these two limitations of citizen data using geospatial analysis techniques. The approach reduces location imprecision by adopting a frequency-sampling strategy to identify representative presence locations from areas over which citizens observed the geographic phenomenon. The approach compensates for the spatial bias by weighting presence locations with cumulative visibility (the frequency at which a given location can be seen by local citizens). As a case study to demonstrate the principle, this approach was applied to map the habitat suitability of the black-and-white snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) in Yunnan, China. Sightings of R. bieti were elicited from local citizens using a geovisualization platform and then processed with the proposed approach to predict a habitat suitability map. Presence locations of R. bieti recorded by biologists through intensive field tracking were used to validate the predicted habitat suitability map. Validation showed that the continuous Boyce index (Bcont(0.1)) calculated on the suitability map was 0.873 (95% CI: [0.810, 0.917]), indicating that the map was highly consistent with the field-observed distribution of R. bieti. Bcont(0.1) was much lower (0.173) for the suitability map predicted based on citizen data when location imprecision was not reduced and even lower (−0.048) when there was no compensation for spatial bias. This indicates that the proposed approach effectively minimized the impacts of location imprecision and spatial bias in citizen data and therefore effectively improved the quality of mapped spatial variation using citizen data. It further implies that, with the application of geospatial analysis techniques to properly account for limitations in citizen data, valuable information embedded in such data can be extracted and used for scientific mapping.

Why Does Rhinopithecus bieti Prefer the Highest Elevation Range in Winter? A Test of the Sunshine Hypothesis

Environmental factors that affect spatiotemporal distribution patterns of animals usually include resource availability, temperature, and the risk of predation. However, they do not explain the counterintuitive preference of high elevation range in winter by the black-and-white snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti). We asked whether variation of sunshine along with elevations is the key driving force. To test this hypothesis, we conducted field surveys to demonstrate that there was a statistically significant pattern of high elevation use during winter. We then asked whether this pattern can be explained by certain environmental factors, namely temperature, sunshine duration and solar radiation. Finally, we concluded with a possible ecological mechanism for this pattern. In this study, we employed GIS technology to quantify solar radiation and sunshine duration across the monkeys range. Our results showed that: 1) R. bieti used the high altitude range between 4100–4400 m in winter although the yearly home range spanned from 3500–4500 m; 2) both solar radiation and sunshine duration increased with elevation while temperature decreased with elevation; 3) within the winter range, the use of range was significantly correlated with solar radiation and sunshine duration; 4) monkeys moved to the areas with high solar radiation and duration following a snowfall, where the snow melts faster and food is exposed earlier. We concluded that sunshine was the main factor that influences selection of high elevation habitat for R. bieti in winter. Since some other endotherms in the area exhibit similar winter distributional patterns, we developed a sunshine hypothesis to explain this phenomenon. In addition, our work also represented a new method of integrating GIS models into traditional field ecology research to study spatiotemporal distribution pattern of wildlife. We suggest that further theoretical and empirical studies are necessary for better understanding of sunshine influence on wildlife range use.

Niche Divergence Among Sex and Age Classes in Black-and-White Snub-nosed Monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti)

A wide range of dimorphic species exhibit intraspecific differences in feeding ecology and habitat use; however, studies comparing resource partitioning between males and females and between age groups occur mainly at the community and species level. We here classified the main habitat of black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti) –fir tree crown– into six microhabitats; examined the lichen-load of the microhabitats; and investigated the microhabitat use of age–sex groups within one-male units (OMUs: an adult male, several females, and juveniles) of R. bieti using instantaneous scanning sampling methods to test whether there is resource niche partitioning in social units of this sexually dimorphic primate in a reserve in Yunnan, China. Our results showed that adult females and juveniles often foraged in the outer layer of the fir tree crown, whereas adult males often foraged in the inner layer, closer to the trunk where food abundance was highest. Adult females and juveniles, however, both shifted microhabitat-use patterns to the inner layer of the fir tree crown when the adult male was absent from the tree. We suggested that the preference for and benefit of the central layer of fir tree crown lies in food availability, but that adult male competitively excluded group members. Microhabitat segregation may serve to maximize the fitness of the group members by reducing intragroup competition, while also increasing interindividual distance, thereby reducing the possible effects of scramble competition.

Black-and-white snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) feeding behavior in a degraded forest fragment: clues to a stressed population

Rapid global deforestation has forced many of the world’s primates to live in fragmented habitats, making the understanding of their behavioral responses to degraded and fragmented habitats a key challenge for their future protection and management. The black-and-white snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) is an endangered species endemic to southwest China. The forest habitat ranges from near-continuous to fragmented. In this study, we investigated the activity budget and diet of a R. bieti population that live in an isolated and degraded habitat patch at Mt. Lasha in Yunnan Province, near the current southern limit of the species. We used our data along with data from six other sites in more-continuous habitats across its range to model factors that predict stress, including feeding effort and time feeding on lichens against potential predictive parameters. Models showed feeding effort across all sites increased with increasing altitude and latitude, and with decreasing food species diversity. There was also a strong positive relationship between feeding effort and time feeding lichens. The Mt. Lasha R. bieti population exploited a total of 36 food species, spending 80.2% of feeding time feeding on lichens, Bryoria spp. and Usnea longissima. These figures are more comparable to those living in the north than those living in the mid- and southern part of the species’ range. Given the models for feeding effort and time feeding on lichens, the unexpectedly high time spend feeding on lichens and feeding effort relative to latitude and elevation are suggestive of a stressed population at Mt. Lasha.

How Human Household Size Affects the Habitat of Black-and-White Snub-Nosed Monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti) in Hongla Snow Mountain Nature Reserve in Tibet, China

Human impacts on the environment at local or regional scales largely depend on intrinsic characteristics of the population, such as household size, household number, and human population growth. These demographic factors can vary considerably among ethnic groups sharing similar ecological landscapes, yet the role of traditional cultural practices in shaping local environmental impacts is not well known for many parts of the world. We here quantify land-cover changes and their relation to the habitat of the endangered Rhinopithecus bieti in Tibet, in 2 areas populated by different ethnic groups (polyandrous Tibetans and monogamous Naxi) from 1986 to 2006. Results indicate that habitat of the monkey decreased greatly within our study area over the 20-yr period. Polyandrous and monogamous ethnic communities differed in household size, household number, population growth, and per capita and per household land use. The practice of polyandry by ethnic Tibetan appears to have reduced per capita resource consumption by reducing the growth of overall household number and increasing household size, which can mitigate the negative effects of higher human density and population growth on the environment. Ethnic Tibetan may also reduce land impacts by adhering to Buddhist customs and alternative, more sustainable means of livelihood. Accordingly, the protection of traditional cultural resources, such as polyandry and Buddhist beliefs, could be an effective way to aid biodiversity and environmental conservation efforts in this key ecosystem.

Validity of historical volunteered geographic information: Evaluating citizen data for mapping historical geographic phenomena

Studies on volunteered geographic information (VGI) have focused on examining its validity to reveal geographic phenomena in relatively recent periods. Empirical evaluation of the validity of VGI to reveal geographic phenomena in historical periods (e.g., decades ago) is lacking, although such evaluation is desirable for assessing the possibility of broadening the temporal scope of VGI applications. This article presents an evaluation of the validity of VGI to reveal historical geographic phenomena through a citizen data-based habitat suitability mapping case study. Citizen data (i.e., sightings) of the black-and-white snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) were elicited from local residents through three-dimensional (3D) geovisualization interviews in Yunnan, China. The validity of the elicited sightings to reveal the historical R. bieti distribution was evaluated through habitat suitability mapping using the citizen data in historical periods. The results of controlled experiments demonstrated that suitability maps predicted using the historical citizen data had a consistent spatial pattern (correlation above 0.60) that reflects the R. bieti distribution (Boyce index around 0.90) in areas free of significant environmental change across historical periods. This in turn suggests that citizen data have validity for mapping historical geographic phenomena. It provides supporting empirical evidence for potentially broadening the temporal scope of VGI applications.

The Effectiveness of Chinas National Forest Protection Program and National-level Nature Reserves, 2000 to 2010

There is profound interest in knowing the degree to which China’s institutions are capable of protecting its natural forests and biodiversity in the face of economic and political change. China’s two most important forest protection policies are its National Forest Protection Program (NFPP) and its National-level Nature Reserves (NNRs). The NFPP was implemented in 17 provinces starting in the year 2000 in response to deforestation-caused flooding. We used MODIS data (MOD13Q1) to estimate forest cover and forest loss across mainland China, and we report that 1.765 million km2 or 18.7% of mainland China was covered in forest (12.3%, canopy cover > 70%) and woodland (6.4%, 40% ≤ canopy cover < 70%) in 2000. By 2010, a total of 480,203 km2 of forest + woodland was lost, amounting to an annual deforestation rate of 2.7%. The forest-only loss was 127,473 km2, or 1.05% annually. The three most rapidly deforested provinces were outside NFPP jurisdiction, in the southeast. Within the NFPP provinces, the annual forest + woodland loss rate was 2.26%, and the forest-only rate was 0.62%. Because these loss rates are likely overestimates, China appears to have achieved, and even exceeded, its NFPP target of reducing deforestation to 1.1% annually in the target provinces. We also assemble the first-ever polygon dataset for China’s forested NNRs (n = 237), which covered 74,030 km2 in 2000. Conventional unmatched and covariate-matching analyses both find that about two-thirds of China’s NNRs exhibit effectiveness in protecting forest cover and that within-NNR deforestation rates are higher in provinces that have higher overall deforestation.

Habitat Alternation of Rhinopithecus bieti in Milaka of Tibet, China

Black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti) distribute in a restricted area of the Trans-Himalayas between the Mekong and Yangtze River, at 26 Po P14N?29 Po P20N and 99 Po P15E?99 Po P37E. There are about 1 700 individuals in 15 groups remained in the habitat between 4 200 (north) ?2 600 m (south) asl. The Milaka group is the northernmost range of the species with about 50 individuals in Mangkang county of Tibet. Based on our field survey and previous reports, we identified the fir forest and the mixed conifer forest as suitable habitat for the monkeys. Summer grazing lands and farmlands, which were made by local people’s cutting and burning in the fir forest at the high and low altitude belt, are replacing fir forest. To evaluate the status of the monkeys’ habitat, we employed GIS and RS to identify the habitat types with Landsat TM satellite imagery in winter of 1986 and 2006 respectively. The work resulted in: 1) the size of summer grazing lands, farmlands, and fir forest was 4 900 hm P2 P, 3 300 hm P2 P and 13 600 hm P2 P in 2006 respectively; 2) during the past 20 years (1986?2006), the size of fir forest decreased by 15.5% (2 500 hm P2 P), summer grazing lands and farmlands increased by 58.1% (1 800 hm P2 P) and 17.8% (500 hm P2 P) respectively; 3) the habitat of the species was more fragmented, the number of habitat patches increased by 75.6%, the mean size of forest patches decreased by 51.8% (from 15.3 to 7.4 hm P2 P), the largest patch index decreased by 54.7%; the patch richness remained the same, but the Shannons diversity index and the Shannons evenness index increased by 4.0%, respectively; and 4) the size of fir forest negatively correlated with villager population (r =?1.000), but the size of summer grazing lands and farmlands positively correlated with villager population (r = 1.000). These indicate the habitat lost and fragmentation for the Milaka group increased sharply during the past 20 years and it is the result of population growth and the most employment of traditional modes.