Flagship species are umbrella protectors of ecosystems, and the effectiveness of their protection is closely related to the overall situation of biodiversity conservation. What effective measures have national parks taken to comprehensively protect flagship species? What modern digital technology products have been applied? What results have been achieved?
On August 19, the sub-forum on “Flagship Species Protection and Monitoring Technology Innovation” of the Third National Park Forum was held, where representatives from national park management institutions, research institutes, universities, and high-tech enterprises carried out extensive and in-depth discussions.
The giant panda is a flagship species for global biodiversity conservation, a symbol of nature conservation worldwide, and a vivid embodiment of Chinese cultural elements. Its survival status has attracted widespread attention.
In the Sichuan section of Giant Panda National Park, there are more than 1,200 wild giant pandas, accounting for 92% of the total number in Giant Panda National Park. Li Tianman, Director of the Sichuan Forestry and Grassland Bureau and Director of the Sichuan Administration of Giant Panda National Park, introduced that Giant Panda National Park has innovated its strategies and built an umbrella protection system with the giant panda and snow leopard as dual flagship species. It has restored habitats, systematically improved the quality of giant panda habitats, promoted the recovery of endangered small populations through technological innovation, explored collaborative governance and value transformation through joint participation and sharing, strengthened “space-air-ground” integrated monitoring through smart technologies, and improved law-based governance and control capabilities through legal safeguards. These efforts continue to explore new paths and models for high-quality national park construction and high-level protection of rare and endangered animals.
Sichuan has completed more than 330,000 mu of habitat restoration and has continued to implement the construction of six giant panda ecological corridors, including Nibashan, Tudiling, and Huangtuliang. It has restored 13,000 mu of bamboo forests, continuously improving the integrity and connectivity of giant panda habitats. “On this basis, we will also focus on implementing three major actions: habitat authenticity and integrity protection and restoration, rare and endangered species protection, and ecological value transformation, so as to protect the beautiful home of giant pandas,” Li Tianman said.
In Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, the “space-air-ground” integrated monitoring system has achieved full coverage across the entire area. A total of 28,000 infrared cameras upload wildlife videos to the database in real time, making it clear where large animals appear and what their activity patterns are.
Since 2005, Feng Liming, Professor at Beijing Normal University and Director of the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard Monitoring and Research Center of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, has continuously carried out ecological research on Northeast China tigers and leopards. By 2018, the “space-air-ground” integrated monitoring system for Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park was successfully developed, integrating one network, one set of equipment, and one platform. At that time, it covered only 500 square kilometers.
“At 20:43 in the evening, a tiger appeared, and by 20:50 the platform was able to issue an early warning signal. How far the tiger appeared from the nearest village can be identified, and if anyone had appeared at that location before, they can also be traced immediately, allowing staff to find the person and help them avoid danger successfully. In the past one or two years, Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park has issued thousands of similar warning messages on average each year,” Feng Liming said.
Through the collection of massive data, the individual identification rate for wildlife has reached 95%. Although the numbers of Northeast China tigers and Northeast China leopards have increased to about 70 and 80 respectively, the risk of human-wildlife conflict is “under control.” The system can accurately assess the spatiotemporal dynamics of wildlife such as Northeast China tigers and leopards, as well as human activities, thereby supporting the efficient formulation of protection and management strategies.
The Hainan gibbon was once suspected by the academic community to have become extinct. Today, its population has recovered to 42 individuals in 7 groups, becoming a vivid example of the achievements of ecological protection and restoration in Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park. Habitat degradation or even disappearance is the main reason why the Hainan gibbon became endangered. To improve habitat quality more precisely and promote population growth, it is necessary to fully understand its living habits.
How large is the population’s activity range? What do they mainly eat? How long is the reproductive interval of adult female gibbons? These are all questions that Professor Fan Pengfei and his team at Sun Yat-sen University have focused on. Over two years, they closely observed the daily lives of two Hainan gibbon family groups, collected nearly 1,400 hours of data, and successfully decoded their life “password.” The average activity range of a gibbon family group is 1 to 3 square kilometers; their habitat elevation is between 800 and 1,100 meters; fruits account for more than 80% of their diet, with more than 80 types of fruit; the interval between offspring births for female gibbons is about 2.8 years; and male gibbons leave the family group to live independently after the age of 7...
“Based on these scientific conclusions, protection work can be carried out more effectively. For example, their activity range is not as large as we previously imagined, so there is no need to restore habitats at higher elevations. However, it is very necessary to restore and connect ecological corridors in and around their main activity areas,” Fan Pengfei said.
To accurately and comprehensively identify species in Wuyi Mountain National Park, the team led by Xu Weihua, Researcher at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, targeted the goal of full-species identification, successfully launched the “Wuyi Mountain Species Observation” App, and established a complete massive sample database, including images, soundprints, and videos of wild animals and plants. Among the more than 3,000 species in Wuyi Mountain, over 300,000 plant samples have been collected, covering more than 90% of plant species; 110,000 images of more than 300 bird species and sounds of more than 200 bird species have also been collected. Through the big database, 80% of animal and plant species can be accurately identified. On this basis, the team further carried out ecosystem investigation and assessment. At present, the comprehensive authenticity index of the forest ecosystem in Wuyi Mountain is 0.68, indicating a good level, while the comprehensive ecosystem integrity index is 0.74, showing overall good performance.
To continuously improve the effectiveness of national park protection, Xu Weihua suggested establishing a full-process ecological investigation and assessment framework covering “investigation, monitoring, assessment, and management.” Based on big data and artificial intelligence, intelligent identification apps for protected objects should be developed. Using a one-square-kilometer grid as the basic unit, the background information of protected objects such as species, ecosystems, natural relics, and landscapes should be clearly identified. Grid-based survey results should then be applied to boundary delineation, control zoning, protection-effectiveness assessment, differentiated control, and national park protection and restoration.
“The yellow-bellied tragopan, a national first-class protected wild animal, is mainly distributed in six provinces and regions: Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Zhejiang, and Hunan. Nearly 20% of its population lives in Wuyi Mountain National Park,” said Zhang Zhengwang, Professor at Beijing Normal University. “In recent years, Wuyi Mountain National Park has intensified research and protection of the yellow-bellied tragopan, clarified its population size through investigation and monitoring, gathered scientific research forces to carry out comprehensive scientific studies, and built the most systematic species protection framework.”
At present, pheasant conservation in China still faces challenges. The populations of 22 species are declining, 9 species lack investigation, and relatively systematic scientific research has only been carried out on species such as the yellow-bellied tragopan and the brown-eared pheasant. In May this year, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration issued the Layout Plan for the Construction of National Protection and Research Centers for Flagship Animals, in which the main body of the Pheasant Protection and Research Center is located in Wuyi Mountain National Park.
Focusing on the basic ideas for building the National Pheasant Protection and Research Center, Zhang Zhengwang analyzed why it should be built, where it should be built, and how it should be built, and briefly introduced the center’s six major tasks, including in-situ protection, wild release, science popularization, and domestic and international exchanges and cooperation. He believes that protecting flagship species is equivalent to protecting forests over large areas and at large scales. Flagship species protection can help improve the survival conditions of a large number of rare and endangered species, thereby enhancing biodiversity.
Precise and comprehensive scientific monitoring is an effective and necessary measure for protecting flagship species. To a certain extent, “not being able to see, not being able to see fully, and not being able to see through” are real challenges in the investigation, monitoring, and assessment of flagship species and their habitats. Sui Haigang, Professor at Wuhan University, introduced a multi-platform space-air-ground remote sensing monitoring technology system, which effectively addresses problems such as difficulty seeing wildlife under forests, incomplete observation of animals with dispersed distributions, and insufficient individual animal identification.
The wide variety of monitoring targets, broad monitoring environments, high labor costs, and difficulty in integrating monitoring data have also brought many challenges to the construction of national park monitoring systems.
In the view of Zhu Ming, Professor at Beihang University, factors such as large differences in individual behavior, wide population distribution, high concealment of activities, vegetation obstruction, and complex landforms and climates make it difficult to achieve large-scale, all-weather rapid identification and early warning, as well as interconnection and interoperability of monitoring data from different platforms. There is an urgent need for continuous monitoring that combines wide-area coverage with localized fine perception, meeting the needs of all-weather, high-precision, high-efficiency, and low-cost monitoring. Beihang University is developing “space–near-space–air–ground” integrated monitoring technology, integrating multi-source monitoring data from space, near-space, air, and ground, and using big data, GIS, artificial intelligence, and other technologies for data processing, analysis, and modeling, so as to achieve accurate assessment and visual display of the status of flagship species and their habitats.
Innovation in monitoring technology empowers flagship species protection and steadily improves the diversity, stability, and sustainability of national park ecosystems. (Cao Yun)
(Source: China Green Times)