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Assessment of the effectiveness of nature reserve management in China

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Abstract

Assessing the management effectiveness of nature reserves is an effective way to promote management quality and achieve management targets. Using a questionnaire developed by the World Bank (WB) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as a tool for tracking management effectiveness, we carried out a survey in 535 nature reserves in China to assess the management status quo in 2005. The results indicated that the indices related to management regulation, infrastructure and equipment, monitoring and evaluation, budget and community involvement produced relatively lower scores, while the indices related to management of protection targets and resources, setup of management agency and reserve boundary had better performances. The independent variables of reserve class, time since establishment, distribution region, economic condition and staff number exhibited strong correlations with the effective management of nature reserves. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to measure the association between the 3 assessment indices representing management effectiveness and other 28 assessment indices. Among these 28 assessment indices, the indices of personnel management, resource management, monitoring and evaluation, and management plan had more effects on the management effectiveness of nature reserves than other indices. When the most pressing management issues and influence factors have been identified, countermeasures can be implemented to improve the management of nature reserves.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the grant from the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2009CB421104), and the WB/WWF alliance project. We would like to acknowledge the state forestry administration of China, forestry departments of 31 municipalities and provinces, 634 nature reserves administration for finishing the scorecard survey. We also thank the anonymous referees for their constructive suggestions on this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Jia Quan, Zhiyun Ouyang, Weihua Xu & Hong Miao

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  1. Jia Quan
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  2. Zhiyun Ouyang
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  3. Weihua Xu
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  4. Hong Miao
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Correspondence to Zhiyun Ouyang.

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Quan, J., Ouyang, Z., Xu, W. et al. Assessment of the effectiveness of nature reserve management in China. Biodivers Conserv 20, 779–792 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-010-9978-7

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