Habitat loss has caused decline of species, and many plant species have become extinct over the past years. Plant conservation translocations (the deliberate movement of organisms from one site for release in another with an intended conservation benefit), as one tool to support species recovery, has been practiced for many years. However, failure was common in conservation translocation projects and poor documentation was hindering understanding of the reasons for failure.
Prof. GAO Jiangyun of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), together with researchers of Florida International University and Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), reviewed the current status of conservation translocations of threatened plants in China and the particular challenges of those translocations. They asked which species were subject to conservation translocation, and among them how many threatened species were at the global or national scale. They then assessed how successful the translocations were and what the proportion of following-up monitoring of the translocation projects had. They also tried to seek the factors influencing species conservation translocation success in China and compared the influence of factors with those in other parts of the world. They finally asked what needed to be changed to improve the effectiveness of conservation translocations as a tool for species conservation in China.
222 conservation translocation cases were identified. Among the 154 species involved, 87 were Chinese endemic species and 101 were listed as threatened on the Chinese Species Red List. The life form of each species was categorized and the translocation type, propagule source, propagule type, and survival and reproductive parameters were determined.
They found that a large number of the translocation projects (67% of all cases) were developed in response to habitat loss caused by the Three-Gorge Dam and other large hydropower projects. Less than half the reintroduction projects in China monitored or documented the nature and outcome of the translocations. Among the 6 examined factors (translocation type, propagule type, number of propagules, propagule source, time to monitoring, and plant life form), only life form and propagule type were significant predictors of survival of translocated populations, but the 2 variables were not independent of each other.
The review also found that it’s common in China to establish ex situ living collections in natural forests (often within nature reserves), both within and out of a species’ known range. However, it needs more careful regulation. To encourage and strengthen future reintroduction monitoring program, the researchers suggested that government funding agencies increase co-sponsorship to conservation translocation projects. More conservation translocations are expected to be carried out as component of an integrated recovery plan.
The study entitled “Translocation of threatened plants as a conservation measure in China” has been published online in Conservation Biology.
Key words
Threatened species; conservation, translocation, extinction
Contact
GAO Jiangyun Ph.D Principal Investigator
Center for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China
Tel: 86-691-8716757
Fax: 86-691-8715070
E-mail: gjy@xtbg.org.cn
