Context

Maintaining connectivity is critical for fragmented habitat networks to retain native species. The tropical forest in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China, is a biodiversity hotspot for China, but is also vulnerable to deforestation due to rapid expansion of rubber plantations, thus better understanding of connectivity may be crucial to species persistence.

Objectives

To quantify the functional connectivity changes in the forest in Xishuangbanna from 1976 to 2014, and identify the conservation and restoration priorities for effective forest conservation and management.

Methods

Using the graph theory (in Conefor sensinode 2.6), forest connectivity from 1976 to 2014 was quantified using probability of connectivity and number of components indexes. The importance of each forest patch during each period and the potential contribution of low-profit rubber plantation patches in 2014 was quantified and ranked by delta values for PC (dPC) index.

Results

Connectivity of forest in Xishuangbanna has progressively decreased over the last 40 years. The ten forest patches which had the highest dPC value remained almost the same for all five periods between 1976 and 2014, though relative importance varied. The 50 most potentially important low-profit rubber plantation patches were identified and mapped, and provide a target for effective restoration efforts to facilitate efficient use of funding to best improve conservation outcomes.

Conclusions