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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Ecol. Evol.
Sec. Conservation and Restoration Ecology
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fevo.2024.1483133

A comparative analysis of protected area expansion strategies for biodiversity and ecosystem services: a case study of Hainan Island

Provisionally accepted
Lijuan Wang Lijuan Wang 1*Yongzhe Chen Yongzhe Chen 2Xiaofei Hu Xiaofei Hu 3
  • 1 Research Institute for Eco-civilazation, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing, China
  • 2 University of Hongkong, Hongkong, China
  • 3 Hainan Academy of Environmental Sciences, Haikou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The allocation of limited resources to simultaneously protect biodiversity and provide ecosystem services (ESs) is a critical global challenge in achieving the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. One common strategy for this challenge is to expand existing protected areas (PAs), but the efficiency of different expansion methods for biodiversity and ESs remains unknown. This study investigated two strategies, preserving existing PAs ("locking") versus reassessing their boundaries ("unlocking"), to evaluate their effectiveness in achieving biodiversity and ES targets. The study used Marxan, a spatial modeling tool, to assess the effectiveness of PAs expansion strategies on Hainan Island in China. The current PAs system, which encompasses 8.82% of the island, is inadequate for protecting the target levels of biodiversity and ES. We experimented with expanding the PAs to 15% using both strategies. The results revealed that, compared with the "unlocking" strategy, the "locking" strategy favored ES protection (66.49% vs 86.84%), but did so at the expense of biodiversity conservation. In contrast, the "unlocking" strategy required a larger area for expansion and led to increased habitat fragmentation compared wtih the "locking" approach. These findings underscore the need for a strategic approach to expanding PAs and balancing between biodiversity conservation and ES provision.This study offers valuable insights that could be used for broader applications in PAs management and biodiversity conservation planning.

    Keywords: Biodiversity, ecosystem services, protected area expansion, Marxan model, Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

    Received: 19 Aug 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Chen and Hu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lijuan Wang, Research Institute for Eco-civilazation, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.