Management planning for endangered plant species in priority protected areas

We propose an improved planning method for priority protected areas (PPAs) to conserve endangered plant species that are threatened by climate change and human disturbance. Recent researches have shown that the actual approaches used in planning PPAs are useful for the conservation of endangered plants. The next required step is to determine how to protect endangered plants effectively in PPAs. Here, we used the case of 84 endangered plants in China to integrate conservation management into the planning of PPAs. First, we identified locations for proposed PPAs based on current and future suitable habitats of species, based on shifts due to climate change, as modelled by Maxent; secondly, we classified the species into different clusters based on the value of protecting them and the factors that threaten them; finally, we determined the best regions for conservation management. We found that species with high material, medicinal, and scientific research values of protection were threatened by over-exploitation and excess reclamation in PPAs. The best candidate PPAs were distributed mainly in southern China—the provinces of Fujiang, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, Zhejiang and Guizhou held large potential for the protection of endangered plant species. Given the attention that we paid to conservation management for the planning of PPAs, and the practical value of study, our method will provide an important point of reference for the implementation of policy to protect endangered plants from the effects of climate change, along with information about the values of protecting species and the factors that threaten them.