Context

The downlisting of giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) from Endangered to Vulnerable in IUCN Red List confirms the effectiveness of current conservation practices. However, future survival of giant panda is still in jeopardy due to habitat fragmentation and climate change. Maintaining movement corridors between habitat patches in the newly established Giant Panda National Park (GPNP) is the key for the long-term sustainability of the species.

Objectives

We evaluated the impacts of conversion from natural forest to plantation on giant panda habitat connectivity, which is permitted within collective forests and encouraged by the policies for the economic benefits of local communities. We modeled distribution of giant panda habitat in Minshan Mountains which harbors its largest population, and delineated movement corridors between core habitat patches under management scenarios of different forest conversion proportions.

Methods

We applied an integrated species distribution model based on inhomogeneous Poisson point process to combine presence-only data and site occupancy data, and least-cost models to identify potential movement corridors between core habitat patches.

Results

We found that current distribution of plantation has not damaged connectivity between core habitat patches of giant panda. However, it could be severely degraded if mass conversion occurred. Since the GPNP incorporates all the core habitats identified from our model, controlling natural forest conversion inside GPNP would maintain the movement corridors for giant panda.

Conclusions

We recommend no expansion of plantations inside the GPNP, and improving collective forest management for expansion of ecological forest in adjoining habitat patches.

中文翻译：

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并非所有的森林都一样：商品林在保护大熊猫景观中的作用

语境

IUCN红色名录中将濒临灭绝的大熊猫（Ailuropoda melanoleuca）列入了濒危物种名单，这证实了当前保护做法的有效性。然而，由于生境破碎化和气候变化，大熊猫的未来生存仍然处于危险之中。在新建立的大熊猫国家公园 (GPNP) 的栖息地斑块之间保持运动走廊是该物种长期可持续发展的关键。

目标

我们评估了从天然林转为人工林对大熊猫栖息地连通性的影响，这在集体林中是允许的，并受到当地社区经济利益政策的鼓励。我们模拟了岷山大熊猫栖息地的分布，并在不同森林转换比例的管理情景下，描绘了核心栖息地斑块之间的运动走廊。

方法

我们应用基于非均匀泊松点过程的综合物种分布模型来结合仅存在数据和场地占用数据，以及最低成本模型来识别核心栖息地斑块之间的潜在运动走廊。

结果

我们发现目前的人工林分布并未破坏大熊猫核心栖息地斑块之间的连通性。但是，如果发生质量转换，它可能会严重降解。由于 GPNP 包含了我们模型中确定的所有核心栖息地，因此控制 GPNP 内的天然森林转换将维持大熊猫的运动走廊。

结论

我们建议不要在 GPNP 内扩大人工林，并改善集体森林管理，以扩大毗邻栖息地斑块的生态林。