More than just pandas: Urgent research needed on China's native plant biodiversity

Yuheng Chen; Yao Li; Yuran Dong; Min Zhang; Yong Yang; Richard Primack; Kathryn Barry; Lingfeng Mao

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110388

More than just pandas: Urgent research needed on China's native plant biodiversity

Yuheng Chen
, Yao Li
, Yuran Dong
, Min Zhang
, Yong Yang
, Richard Primack
, Kathryn Barry
, Lingfeng Mao^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Conservation of threatened species is essential for achieving sustainable development goals and realizing ecological civilization in China. However, our new survey on endemic threatened angiosperms in the scientific publication database showed that there is still a serious bias in the species' selection and research topics. China's 2117 endemic threatened angiosperm species remain relatively understudied with 41 % of them being not included in any Chinese-language and English-language scientific publications. Furthermore, only 2 % of the 44,383 publications that mention threatened plant species are related to conservation research and over 75 % of them are found behind a paywall. We propose measures to increase and advance conservation research and protection for China's threatened plants, 1) improve long-term and comprehensive research on endemic threatened angiosperms in China, 2) combine conservation research and practices and transfer conservation knowledge to practices timely, 3) promote inter-governmental communication and cooperation, and 4) apply new technologies and methods to conservation studies and practices.

Original language	English
Article number	110388
Pages (from-to)	1-6
Number of pages	6
Journal	Biological Conservation
Volume	289
Early online date	21 Nov 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110388
Publication status	Published - Jan 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd

Funding

This research was supported by Jiangsu Social Development Project ( BE2022792 ) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ( XDB31000000 ). We also need to develop long-term projects in the field of plant conservation research and programs. In China, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment substantially supported conservation research. Among them, NSFC is the largest sponsor in Chinese research, however it mainly funds short-term projects lasting just a few years ( Hu, 2020 ). In addition, very few conservation projects in NSFC were allocated to plants. China's GDP has increased from 9.6 trillion in 2010 to 14.7 trillion in 2020. However, the number of funds in NSFC's sub-project of conservation biology (Subject number: C0312) in 2020 did not significantly increase compared to 2010 ( Fig. 3 , Appendix 1-2). In the past 10 years (2010−2020), NSFC has approved an average of seven projects and allocated 2.61 million CNY to conservation biology per year, and the average duration of these projects is 3.5 years. Only five plants have been studied multiple times, and there is no long-term (over seven years) research funding related to endangered plants. Hence, we call for more long-term and multi-dimensional research projects on these endangered plants. Long term projects not only require the support of national research funds, but also require the cooperation of local governments and institutions. Long-term research projects on threatened plants and plant communities in native habitats, nature reserves, and botanical gardens ( Li et al., 2020c ) can provide unique insights into conservation measures and actions of these threatened species. Where possible such projects should address the environmental, economic and cultural concerns of local people, let local people be involved in decision-making processes, and provide jobs, training and other economic opportunities for the local community. Such long-term projects will result in better opportunities for successful conservation and management.

Funders	Funder number
Jiangsu Social Development Project	BE2022792
Ministry of Ecology and Environment
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Chinese Academy of Sciences	XDB31000000
Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China
National Forestry and Grassland Administration

Keywords

Biodiversity conservation
Conservation bias
Conservation funding
Ecological civilization
Endemic plants
International collaborations

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10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110388

1-s2.0-S0006320723004895-mainFinal published version, 961 KBLicence: Taverne

Cite this

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title = "More than just pandas: Urgent research needed on China's native plant biodiversity",

abstract = "Conservation of threatened species is essential for achieving sustainable development goals and realizing ecological civilization in China. However, our new survey on endemic threatened angiosperms in the scientific publication database showed that there is still a serious bias in the species' selection and research topics. China's 2117 endemic threatened angiosperm species remain relatively understudied with 41 \% of them being not included in any Chinese-language and English-language scientific publications. Furthermore, only 2 \% of the 44,383 publications that mention threatened plant species are related to conservation research and over 75 \% of them are found behind a paywall. We propose measures to increase and advance conservation research and protection for China's threatened plants, 1) improve long-term and comprehensive research on endemic threatened angiosperms in China, 2) combine conservation research and practices and transfer conservation knowledge to practices timely, 3) promote inter-governmental communication and cooperation, and 4) apply new technologies and methods to conservation studies and practices.",

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doi = "10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110388",

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AU - Chen, Yuheng

AU - Li, Yao

AU - Dong, Yuran

AU - Zhang, Min

AU - Yang, Yong

AU - Primack, Richard

AU - Barry, Kathryn

AU - Mao, Lingfeng

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KW - Conservation funding

KW - Ecological civilization

KW - Endemic plants

KW - International collaborations

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More than just pandas: Urgent research needed on China's native plant biodiversity

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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