Global Ecology and Conservation (Jun 2022)
Safeguarding China’s native trees – A review of integrated conservation practices between 2008 and 2020
Abstract
As part of an integrated initiative to compile the world’s tree species (GlobalTreeSearch), assess their conservation status (Global Tree Assessment, GTA) and devise practical conservation action for threatened taxa (Global Trees Campaign, GTC), this review provides a synthesis of the collaborative efforts carried out in China under this framework between 2008 and 2020 by the botanic garden community, the forestry sector, other conservation organisations, and Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). Using GlobalTreeSearch and GTA data, the analysis reveals that China boasts some 4886 native tree species of which virtually half, 2429, are endemic to the country. With nearly one in five Chinese tree species threatened, conservation action has been implemented under the umbrella of the GTC for some hundred taxa. This included development of best-practice in propagation, population recovery in situ and creation of ex situ conservation collections as an insurance policy for the future. Although urgency prevails to scale up conservation action for many more species at the brink of extinction, the GTC offers an ecologically more nuanced conceptual framework for application in China’s large-scale tree planting and reforestation efforts. This integrated approach is especially opportune now, at a time when China is reviewing the effectiveness and plans for expansion of its protected area system, but is also compelled to increase forest cover for carbon capture and economic growth. The GTC provides a comprehensive method to ascertain planting the ‘right tree in the right place’, but also ‘for the right purpose at the right time and with the right care’.
