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Article

Distribution and Ecological Network Construction of National Natural Protected Areas in the Upper Reaches of Yangtze River

by
Xiangshou Dong
1,2,
Quanzhi Yuan
1,2,*,
Yaowen Kou
1,2,
Shujun Li
1,2 and
Ping Ren
1,3
1
School of Geography and Resources Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610101, China
2
Sustainable Development Research Center of Resource and Environment of Western Sichuan, Chengdu 610066, China
3
Key Laboratory of Southwest Land Resources Evaluation and Monitoring of Ministry of Education, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610066, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1012; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021012
Submission received: 22 November 2022 / Revised: 23 December 2022 / Accepted: 26 December 2022 / Published: 5 January 2023
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Abstract

:
The upper reaches are an important part of the Yangtze River Basin. The basin area is large and the terrain is complex, covering nearly all types of terrestrial ecosystems. This study sorts out the information of 313 protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and uses morphological spatial pattern analysis, a minimum cumulative resistance model, and geospatial indicators to quantitatively analyze the relationship between population density, per capita gross domestic product, and the pattern of protected areas in combination with regional economic and social conditions. Results show that the number of national forest parks is the largest, accounting for 31.31% of the study area. In the study area, all types of protected areas are concentrated distribution, protected areas in sparsely populated areas that are larger, more densely populated, and more economically developed, and the corresponding number of protected areas is greater. The study area is divided into five regions through the analysis of the corridors of the protected areas: the source area of the Yangtze River National Park, the Hengduan Mountain Ecological Strict Protection Area, the Qinling-Daba Mountain Ecological Protection Area, the Northern Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau Ecological Protection Area, and the Three Gorges Ecological Control Area, forming an ecological network pattern of “one park, four districts, and three rings” in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

1. Introduction

Protected natural areas refer to specific geographic areas that are clearly defined, permitted, invested, and managed by law or other effective means to realize the long-term protection of natural resources and related ecosystem services and cultural values [1]. In 1872, the United States established Yellowstone National Park, marking the beginning of modern protected areas. Subsequently, other countries in North America, Oceania, Australia, and Africa have established protected areas [1,2]. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the global demand for protected areas has increased rapidly, increasing the number and scope of protected areas and becoming a symbol of a country’s civilization and progress [3]. As of May 2019, protected land areas covered approximately 12.8% of the Earth’s land area, compared with about 10% in 1992 when the Convention on Biological Diversity was signed [4].
China is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world [5]. It has witnessed perhaps the most intense conflict between protection and development needs, as well as gradual changes in environmental policies [6]. Since the establishment of China’s first protected areas in 1956, China had a total of 1.18 × 104 protected natural areas of various types by the end of 2018, with the total area of protected natural areas accounting for more than 18% of its total land area. Among them, 2859 nature reserves with a total area of 1.48 × 106 km2 are found, accounting for 15.09% of the land area and more than 80% of the total area of protected nature areas [7]. These protected natural areas have played an important role in protecting biodiversity, preserving natural heritage, improving ecological environment quality, and safeguarding national ecological security [8,9].
However, many problems, such as the restriction of the management system and the fact that various types of protected areas are self-contained and do not connect with each other, are still encountered in the construction of China’s protected natural area system, leading to the fragmentation of the ecosystem. Management and decision-making departments have different protection laws and regulations, science and technology, and planning standards for all types of protected areas, resulting in co-management of multiple departments, overlapping of the division and content of protected areas, excessive functional zones of protected areas, low management efficiency, and easy conflicts between functional zones [10]. The problems in China’s protected natural system are due to the lack of laws and regulations in the protected areas, the weak and backward legal foundation, the lack of professional laws and regulations, the low-level existing laws and regulations, and the restricted implementation and supervision of the law [11]. In 2017, the Chinese government issued the Master Plan for the Development and Management of National Parks, marking the formal transformation of China’s protected area system from nature reserves to national parks [12], which has greatly improved the level of protected area construction in China. The official implementation of the Yangtze River Protection Law in 2021 has clarified that biodiversity in the basin must be protected and a standard system for biodiversity protection must be established and improved [13].
The construction of protected areas cannot be separated from scientific analysis and methodological guidance. Scholars from all over the country have provided a variety of schemes and strategies [14]. At present, the nearest neighbor index is used to analyze the distribution characteristics of protected land [3], spatial density [15], hotspot analysis [16], and imbalance index [17], and the natural, social, and economic conditions of the reserve are discussed [18]. More research areas are provinces or single protected areas [19,20]. The objects of study were biased toward a single species or a single type of protected area [21,22]. In recent years, research methods of ecological network patterns have gradually developed and matured and have been widely applied in ecological security [23], protected land connectivity [24], healthy urban development [25], land use change, and other fields [26]. This study intends to apply morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA), the combination of MSPA, geographical concentration index, nearest neighbor index, spatial kernel density, and the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model, which has good practicability and scalability. The upper reaches of the Yangtze River Basin, a typical ecological barrier area, are chosen as the research area rather than taking a single administrative area or a single protected area. This area is located in the transition area between the first step and the second step in China’s topography, including plateau, basin, plain, hills, and other landforms, and the vegetation type is mainly forest. It has extremely important ecological functions, such as water conservation, biodiversity protection, carbon fixation, and oxygen release. Therefore, this region is a key area for the construction of protected natural areas in China. This study aims to conduct a more comprehensive analysis of the national protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River from multiple perspectives to clarify the distribution pattern of national protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, study the influence of human and natural factors on protected areas, explore the ecological network of protected areas, and propose corresponding suggestions for the protected area system. This study is conducive to promoting the ecological civilization construction of protected areas with national parks as the main body.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Study Area

The upper reaches of the Yangtze River refer to the section of the Yangtze River from its source to Yichang in Hubei Province. The Yangtze River flows downstream successively through southeastern Qinghai Province, eastern Xizang Province, Sichuan Province, northern Yunnan Province, Chongqing Province, northwestern Guizhou Province, southwest Gansu Province and Shaanxi Province, and western Hubei Province. The river basin covers eight provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) [27]. The upper reaches of the Yangtze River are mountains and plateaus with large topography and are located on the first and second steps of China. Originating in the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Yangtze River passes through the Hengduan Mountains, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Sichuan Basin, and other areas. The western part of the region has a plateau monsoon climate, and most of the central and eastern parts of the region have a subtropical monsoon climate, with abundant precipitation and a vast watershed area [28]. In the middle and eastern parts of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, most of the vegetation is subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest, and the western part is mainly alpine grassland, with complex and diverse biological resources [29]. By 2020, 313 national-level protected areas are found in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, including 4 national parks, 52 national nature reserves, and 257 national natural parks (Figure 1).

2.2. Data Collection

Data on the list, area, and date of establishment of China’s national parks, nature reserves, and national natural parks come from the Protected Areas Platform of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration of China (http://www.cnnpark.com/res-np-w.html, accessed on 16 April 2022), and some supplementary data are from Chinese Academy of Natural Resources Economics (http://www.canre.org.cn/, accessed on 16 April 2022) and the official website of China National Geopark (http://www.geopark.cn/, accessed on 16 April 2022). The regional and urban population density and gross domestic product of the upstream region are derived from the 2020 statistical yearbook of each province and the official website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China (http://www.mca.gov.cn/, accessed on 16 April 2022). China’s border, China’s first-class river, the upper Yangtze River boundary, China’s provincial digital elevation model 90 m data, China’s road data in 2020, and China’s land use data in 2020 are derived from (https://www.resdc.cn/, accessed on 16 April 2022).

2.3. Research Methods

2.3.1. Selection of Ecological Source

In the early stage, the selection of ecological sources is mostly limited to large landscape patches, such as directly taking nature reserves and scenic spots as objects [25]; the selection is based on the type of land use [30] or the superposition analysis of hot spots and the extraction of ecological service value [31] or the identification of source area based on the InVEST model [32], but a unified paradigm has not been formed. In recent years, MSPA has been widely applied in ecological security [23], protected land connectivity [24], healthy urban development [25], land use change, and other fields [26] due to its convenience, high compatibility, and scientific accuracy, providing a possibility for the analysis of large study areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
This study is based on the uneven distribution of protected areas and diversified land use types in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Guidos and ArcGIS software were used to take forests, grasslands, waters, and wetlands with good ecological environment and high ecological value in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River as ecological land [33,34], which were set as the foreground data. The cultivated land, construction land, unused land, and other areas with heavy human activities or harsh ecological environment were set as the background data, and seven landscape types were obtained: core area, bridge, ring road, branch, edge area, pore, and isolated island. The core area was selected as the ecological source area of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

2.3.2. MCR Model

The MCR model, proposed by Knaapen, is used to calculate the cost of the process from the source to the destination [35]. At present, it has been widely used in the ecological environment and other fields [36]. The specific formula is as follows:
M C R = f · m i n ∑ j = n i = m ( D i j · R i )
where MCR is the minimum cumulative resistance value, Dij is the distance between source j and destination i, and Ri is the resistance coefficient of landscape i.

2.3.3. Gravity Model

Gravity models, which integrate landscape ecology and spatial modeling, are often used to select and optimize corridors in a landscape [37]. In this study, a gravity model is used to analyze all ecological corridors and quantitatively evaluate the interaction of each corridor. The larger the G value, the more important the corridor, so that important corridors can be extracted [13].
G i j = L m a x 2 ln S i ln S j L i j 2 P i P j
where G i j is the interaction force between plaque i and j, L m a x is the maximum resistance of all corridors, S i is the area of plaque i, S j is the area of plaque j, P i is the resistance value of plaque i, P j is the resistance value of plaque j and L i j is the resistance value from plaque i to j.

2.3.4. Index of Imbalance

The imbalance index is the index of the equilibrium degree of the distribution of the research object in different regions. The formula for calculating the concentration index in the Lorentz curve is adopted [17]. In this study, the natural protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are calculated.
B = 100 ∑ i = 1 n C i − 50 ( n + 1 ) / 100 n − 50 ( n + 1 )
where B is the imbalance index, C i is the proportion of the number of protected areas in the number of samples of each research unit, and the accumulative percentage is calculated after the proportion of each research unit is ranked from the largest to the smallest. C i is the accumulative percentage ranked at the i position, n is the number of research units, and the exponent is between 0 and 1. The larger the value, the more unbalanced the distribution of protected areas [17].

3. Results

The upper reaches of the Yangtze River are divided into 8 types of protected natural areas, with a total of 313 national protected areas. These areas include 4 national parks, 52 national nature reserves, 82 national wetland parks, 98 national forest parks, 3 national grassland parks, 38 national geological parks, 5 national mining parks, and 31 national scenic spots (Table 1). Protected areas are mainly divided into three categories: national parks, national nature reserves, and national, where national nature parks are divided into wetland parks, forest parks, grassland parks, geological parks, mine parks, and national scenic spots [8]. National forest parks have the largest number of protected areas, accounting for 31.31% of the study area, followed by national wetland parks, accounting for 26.21% of the study area. The upper reaches of the Yangtze River involve eight provinces and regions. In accordance with the region, the number of national nature reserves in Sichuan Province is 137, accounting for about 44% of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

3.1. Overall Distribution of Protected Areas

From the perspective of the imbalance index in the study area, the imbalance index in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is about 0.63, indicating that the spatial distribution of various protected areas in the study area is uneven. The national park imbalance index is about 0.71, the national nature park imbalance index is about 0.63, and the nature reserve imbalance index is about 0.61. This condition shows that the spatial distribution of various types of protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is uneven, showing a trend of regional concentration. National parks have the highest geographical concentration index and the most concentrated distribution, because the national park system is in the pilot phase and currently has only 10 national parks [38]. The upper reaches of the Yangtze River involve four national parks, concentrated in Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Hubei Provinces; the concentration index of national natural parks is smaller. This condition is because various types of protected areas are observed in natural parks [8], and the distribution is large and scattered.
The nuclear density analysis of 313 national protected areas in the study area shows that the protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are concentrated, contiguous, and grouped. From the number of protected areas, protected areas are concentrated in Sichuan, Chongqing, and Guizhou. In the west of Chengdu Plain, Aba, Ganzi, and Liangshan are more concentrated, and the number of Qinba Mountain areas in the north of Chengdu Plain is relatively small. The nuclear density in the mountainous areas of Chongqing and northwestern Guizhou is the largest, the distribution of protected areas is more concentrated, and the number of protected areas is more. The distribution of protected areas in Kunming, Lijiang, Panzhihua, and other cities is also relatively concentrated.

3.2. Extraction of Ecological Source

Seven landscape types in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River were obtained on the basis of MSPA (Figure 2). The core area was 3.89 × 105 km2, isolated island was 1.57 × 104 km2, pore was 4.48 × 104 km2, edge was 6.30 × 104 km2, connecting bridge was 2.61 × 104 km2, roundabout was 1.41 × 105 km2, and branch was 3.2 × 104 km2. The core area accounted for about 55% of the total area. We selected the core area of large natural patches and ecological reserves as ecological land. In the ecological land, the first 12 patches with an area greater than 1000 km2 were selected as important ecological sources in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River (Figure 2). About 80% of the national protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are located in the extracted ecological land, and about 70% of the national protected areas intersect with important ecological sources, indicating the scientificity and objectivity of the ecological source selection. The important ecological sources of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are mainly concentrated in the source region of the Yangtze River, Hengduan Mountains, Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan Plateau, Qinling-Daba Mountains, and the Three Gorges Reservoir area. The source of the Yangtze River belongs to the grassland ecological source, the Hengduan Mountains belongs to the forest-grassland combined ecological source, the Yunguichuan and Qinlin-Daba Mountains belong to the forest ecological source, and the Three Gorges Reservoir area belongs to the water-forestland combined ecological source.

3.3. Resistance Surface Construction

The circulation between heterogeneous landscape units usually has a certain resistance, and the ecological resistance has a negative hindering effect on biological activities. The resistance value is attached to each land cover unit to obtain the connectivity network module of the study area. The factors and size of resistance are determined by natural conditions and social and economic development. In accordance with the existing literature, this study selects four resistance factors: altitude, slope, land use, and road network (Table 2), and assigns the four resistance factors to each category [25,39,40].
The road network in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is concentrated in the Chengdu Plain and its surrounding areas, Chongqing and Guizhou, including four indicators: national roads, county roads, expressways, and railways. The areas with large resistance values of land use resistance surface are concentrated in the Sichuan Basin and the alpine plateau of Northwest Qinghai, including forest, grassland, water area, cultivated land, construction land, and bare land. The high value of the slope resistance surface is concentrated in the Hengduan Mountains and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, whereas the low value is observed in the Sichuan Basin and Qinghai Plateau. The high value of the altitude resistance surface is concentrated in the alpine plateau area west of Chengdu Plain. The resistance surface of various factors is embedded to obtain the comprehensive resistance surface of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River (Figure 3). The large resistance values are distributed in the Chengdu Plain, the cross-sectional high mountain area, and the Qinghai Plateau (Figure 4).

3.4. Construction of Ecological Network

In accordance with the comprehensive resistance surface, the MCR model was used to calculate the cost distance of each important ecological source, generate cost backtracking links, and then calculate the cost paths of each ecological source to other ecological sources. A total of 144 protected corridors were obtained, which were mainly distributed around the Sichuan Basin and the Hengduan Mountains in western Sichuan. We used a gravity model to minimize costs and reduce overlap rates [37]. The corridors with gravity values greater than 10 were selected from 144 potential ecological corridors, and 22 ecological corridors were obtained. The 22 important corridors were used as important ecological corridors for protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River (Figure 5).
Ecological nodes play a “stepping stone” role in ecological networks and are usually distributed in ecological ecotones [41]. Using GIS software, 68 intersections were extracted from 144 ecological corridors as ecological nodes in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Twelve important ecological nodes in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River were obtained by selecting the intersection of important corridors in the ecological nodes (Figure 6). The total length of ecological corridors reaches 3.98 × 104 km through the simulation of ecological corridor width setting of 100 m in the upper reaches of Yangtze River, where the total length of important ecological corridors reaches approximately 1.1 × 104 km. The longest important ecological corridor is 900 km, with an average length of about 500 km.
The ecological network of protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River was constructed by combining 12 important ecological sources, 22 important ecological corridors, and 12 important ecological nodes. As shown in Figure 5, the ecological network of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is mainly distributed in the Hengduan Mountains west of the Sichuan Basin and the source area of the Yangtze River in the plateau. The Qinling-Daba Mountain sector in the north, the Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan border mountainous area in the south, and the Three Gorges Reservoir area in the east are also distributed. The entire ecological network is distributed around the Sichuan Basin [33]. Therefore, we divided the protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River into five major areas in accordance with the overall analysis of the protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, combined with the actual geographical conditions: the source area of the national park, the Hengduan Mountain ecological strict protection area, the Qinling-Daba Mountain ecological conservation area, the northern Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau ecological conservation area, and the Three Gorges ecological control area, forming an ecological network pattern of “one park, four districts, and three rings” in the protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River (Figure 7).

4. Discussion

4.1. Protected Area System and Ecological Network

With the establishment of a protected area system with national parks as the main body, some problems are still encountered in the construction of national parks, such as unclear functional positioning, fragmented management, limited boundaries to administrative boundaries, failure to truly realize ecological integrity protection, and insufficient scientific research support. However, the construction of nature reserves has gradually matured, and a management system of the separation of the “three rights” of ownership, management, and supervision has been proposed [42], implementing a management system in which state ownership coexists with collective ownership, and government heads, communities, and public welfare organizations participate [43]. The modern technical means for the construction of protected areas have been greatly improved, achieving accurate and scientific monitoring of all aspects from the establishment, construction, and operation to the final management of protected areas and gradually forming a modern monitoring system [44]. The respective protected areas conduct scientific functional zoning and formulate corresponding laws and regulations in accordance with actual conditions [45]. Guided by the “Guiding Opinions on the Establishment of a Nature Reserve System with National Parks as the Main Body”, the relevant functional departments of provinces and cities at all levels led by the China National Park Bureau are the management system to “China National Park Law” and “Yangtze River Protection Law”, based on [13], and a variety of regulations, rules, and systems, supplemented by the legal system, are established to promote the construction of protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. A perfect protected area system will promote the development of other important protected areas in China and provide systematic guidance for the construction of natural protected areas, with Chinese national parks as the main body and the development of ecological civilization in China.
From the results of the above imbalance index and nuclear density analysis, the protected areas of various categories of countries are unevenly distributed [3,17,46]. Among the six types of protected areas, national parks are the most concentrated, followed by national nature reserves. The distribution of national protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River presents six hot spots, which are mainly distributed in Hengduan Mountains in the west of Sichuan Basin, Qinling-Daba Mountains in the north of Sichuan, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau at the junction of Yunnan and Guizhou, and Three Gorges Reservoir-Shennongjia area [47]. A large number of protected areas are found in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, with complete types showing a concentrated, contiguous, and group distribution pattern. In addition to the study area, the vast majority of China’s national protected areas from the regional to provincial regions to the national region show a state of concentrated distribution, consistent with previous research results [17,25,48]. This condition also reflects the spatial concentration of protected areas in China and provides a reasonable spatial planning basis for the construction of a protected area system.
The important ecological sources around the Sichuan Basin, the important ecological corridors around the Sichuan Basin, and the important ecological nodes around the Sichuan Basin together constitute the ecological network of the “three rings” in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
(1) The Yangtze River source protection park is mainly located in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qumalai two counties, an area of 9.03 × 104 km2. The area is distributed in the Sanjiangyuan National Park, the Yangtze River Park, Longbao Nature Reserve, Qumaled Quyuan Wetland Park, Marco River Wetland Park, Batang River Wetland Park, and other national protected areas. It is the area with the largest increase in ecological service value in the Sanjiangyuan National Park and is an important ecological function area in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The entire park is dominated by grassland and desert, and windbreak and sand fixation are extremely important ecological functions in this area. The alpine ecosystem affects the area of snow, frozen soil, and wetland, with a strong water conservation function [49]. This region should focus on protecting the ecological environment of glaciers and snow mountains, controlling the expansion of desertification, and implementing strict closure measures to further improve the ecological service value of the Yangtze River source region.
(2) The Hengduan Mountain’s strict ecological protection zone mainly includes the eastern Tibet Autonomous Region, western Sichuan Province, and northwestern Yunnan Province. This zone has complex terrain and elevation differences, with a variety of landforms and vegetation zones [50]. Many national nature reserves are found in this area, where the Giant Panda National Park, Gongga Mountain Nature Reserve, Siguniang Mountain Nature Reserve, Haizi Mountain Nature Reserve, Qingsongduo Nature Reserve, Shaluli Mountain Forest Park, Hailuogou Forest Park, Xianxia Forest Park, Baima Snow Mountain Nature Reserve, and Three Parallel Rivers Nature Reserve are all large national protected areas. The ecological space occupies the main body, mainly forest land, rich plant resources, and many wild protected animals, and is an important biodiversity conservation area in China [51]. Rich forest resources contribute to the area’s developed water system, and numerous tributaries, Minshan, Qionglai, and Liangshan, become an important water conservation area in the Yangtze River Basin. We should continue to strengthen closing hillsides to facilitate afforestation, strictly protect natural forests, improve the construction of wildlife reserves, and reduce the destruction of resources.
(3) The Qinling-Daba Mountain ecological conservation area is an important transition zone and boundary of China’s geographical structure, which spans from north to south, connects east and west, and plays an important role in China’s ecological pattern [48]. The vegetation is dominated by forests, and the environment is complex, biodiverse, and climate sensitive. It is an important ecological function area for water conservation, biodiversity, and soil conservation in China [52]. The area is distributed in Xuebaoding Nature Reserve, Micang Mountain Forest Park, Jianmenguan Forest Park, Guangwu Mountain-Nuoshui River Geopark, Bailong Lake Reserve, and other large national protected areas. We should strictly control the damage to ecology caused by the development of hydropower, minerals, and other resources, change the previous extensive mode of production, and promote the coordinated development of economy and ecology.
(4) The ecological conservation area in the north of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau is located in the south of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and the terrain is sub-tropical monsoon climate. The soil utilization types in this area are complex, and the animal and plant resources are abundant. Rocky desertification is the main ecological problem. The central and western parts of Yunnan are sensitive to soil erosion. This area includes Meigu Dafengding Nature Reserve, Sutie Nature Reserve, Liziping Nature Reserve, Heizhugou Forest Park, Wumeng Mountain Nature Reserve, Dianchi Scenic Area, Jinfo Mountain Nature Reserve, Chishui Danxia Geopark, Mayang River Nature Reserve, and other national protected areas. The proportion of water conservation forest land should be increased to prevent the reduction in primitive forests and the excessive use of forest resources, focus on protecting karst areas, reduce rocky desertification areas, and improve ecological functions, such as soil conservation and biodiversity.
(5) The Three Gorges ecological management and control area is an important ecological function area of water conservation, biodiversity, soil conservation, and flood storage in China. It is an important ecological barrier in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River [53]. This region has a staggered distribution of hilly valleys, natural conditions vary greatly, and it contains mainly forests and water wetlands. This area includes Yintiaoling Nature Reserve, Hongchiba Forest Park, Xuebaoshan Forest Park, Three Gorges (Chongqing, Hubei) Geopark, Dalaoling Forest Park, and other national protected areas. The steep terrain and frequent natural disasters have affected the production, life, and ecology of the surrounding areas. We should continue to implement the follow-up management rules of ecological relocation, strengthen the protection of returning farmland to forest and natural forest, and optimize the structure of shrub and grass vegetation and the construction of bank shelter forest belts.

4.2. Influencing Factors of Protected Area Pattern

The construction and development of protected areas inevitably involves human activities on the basis of the social and economic aspects of the analysis (Figure 8). A strong correlation is observed between the number of protected areas, population density, and per capita GDP in the study area [5]. With the increase in population density, the number of protected areas increases [15], with a correlation coefficient of 0.93, but the number of protected areas decreases beyond a certain threshold. The per capita GDP is insignificantly proportional to the number of protected areas; the correlation coefficient is about 0.64, but the number of protected areas decreases after exceeding a certain threshold. The area of the protected areas is negatively correlated with population density and per capita GDP, especially with population density reaching −0.8. The area of the protected area decreases with the increase in population density and GDP per capita. This finding shows that with the increase in population and frequent economic activities, the contradiction between man and land is more prominent, resulting in a decrease in the area of protected land. Large areas of protected land are always in areas where the relationship between man and land is relaxed and the population is sparse [54]. However, people are always paying attention to the natural environment. The areas with dense population and relatively good economic development are more capable of protecting nature after having a certain economic material basis, and the number of protected areas is relatively large [5].
In situ conservation has promoted the development of biodiversity [55], but it is inseparable from the influence of the local natural environment [56]. This study analyzes the four aspects of landform, climate, vegetation, and soil in the study area, which are also the four factors that affect the natural environment (Figure 9). From the perspective of landforms, most of the protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are distributed in the middle mountains of Hubei, Guizhou, and Yunnan and the low basin landforms of Sichuan, accounting for about 53% of the total number of protected areas, and the number of protected areas in the hilly and alpine regions of the source of rivers is the least. From the perspective of climate, protected areas are mostly distributed in the subtropical region, where the central subtropical region is the most distributed, accounting for about 55% of the total. As an important ecological function area in China, the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are dominated by forests and grasslands, and the protected areas are mostly distributed in subtropical humid evergreen broad-leaved forest vegetation areas, accounting for about 72% of the total. Soil factors are no exception. Compared with alpine soil and arid and semiarid soil, the protected areas of humid and semi-humid soil in the east account for about 84% of the total.
The study found that most of the protected areas are distributed in areas with excellent natural conditions [31], moderate altitude, warm and humid climate, high soil nutrient content, and lush vegetation. These areas are more suitable for the survival of animals and plants, which is consistent with previous research results [17,57]. Geographical things are comprehensive. Following the laws of geographical research, we analyze the two aspects of humanities and nature, which is more consistent with the actual situation of the protected areas, reflecting the current situation of the protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and providing reference suggestions for the sustainable development of the protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Many human factors are observed in addition to the social economy. Natural factors include not only the above four aspects. Future research should be more comprehensive and objective to serve China’s protected area construction, protect and improve the natural environment, and promote social and economic development.

4.3. Protected Corridor of the Upper Yangtze River

The interaction between each protected area is interrelated, rather than being largely independent. Ecological corridor construction effectively connects protected areas of different shapes and sizes, reducing isolation of habitat debris [58,59]. The ecological network of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is obtained through the identification of ecological sources in the study area, the construction of resistance surface, and the design and selection of corridors [60]. The ecological pattern of the ecological source of the Sichuan Basin in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the ecological corridor of the Sichuan Basin, and the ecological node of the Sichuan Basin are proposed. The research area is divided into five major areas: the Yangtze River source area of the national park, the strict ecological protection area of the Hengduan Mountains, the Qinling-Daba Mountain ecological conservation area, the northern Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau ecological conservation area, and the Three Gorges ecological control area, forming an ecological network pattern of “one park, four districts, and three rings” in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The flow of material and energy can be continuously conducted within the ecological network after the construction of ecological corridors, which can effectively control and improve the regional ecological environment problems. This problem is also considered by many protected areas [61,62,63,64].
The ecological source of the Sichuan Basin in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is the unity of natural ecological space, such as “mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, and grasses” [65]. It is located in the transitional area between the first and second steps of China’s topography, including plateaus, basins, plains, hills, and other landforms. This area is an important ecological barrier in China. On the basis of current protection, the integration, unified protection, and utilization of different ecological types should be conducted, and the ecological effects, such as water conservation, biodiversity protection, carbon fixation, and oxygen release, should be continuously improved [2].
Ecological nodes play a “stepping stone” role in the ecological network, usually distributed in the ecological ecotone [41]. The important ecological nodes in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River surround the Sichuan Basin and have important strategic value. Reducing the ecological heterogeneity and sensitivity of ecological nodes through physical and biological measures can effectively improve the ecological environment of the upstream region and promote the construction of ecosystem networks [66].
The ecological corridor is linear, multifunctional, and sustainable. It is an important corridor to promote urban-rural coordination, harmony between man and nature, and improvement of the ecosystem. The ecological corridor in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is constructed from two aspects of society and nature and is a social-economic-natural composite ecological corridor around the Sichuan Basin. The design of ecological corridors and the implementation of protective measures will have a great impact on production, life, and ecology in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River [67]. It can effectively regulate local climate, improve environmental quality, maintain biodiversity, and improve regional ecological value [66]. The design is derived from the landscape, cultural, and economic values to meet the needs of harmonious coexistence between man and nature and to maintain the ecological security pattern of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Although the management system of nature reserves has changed from top to bottom, it should also proceed from reality to obtain appropriate management methods for each protected area. In terms of resistance surface construction and protected area distribution, the influencing factors are less considered, and more comprehensive research should be conducted in the future.

5. Conclusions

The conclusions through the analysis of the spatial pattern index of the national protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the relationship between the distribution of protected areas and natural and social factors, and the simulation of the ecological network in the study area based on the MCR model are summarized as follows:
(1) Many types of national protected areas exist in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, which are divided into three categories: national parks, national nature reserves, and national nature parks. Most of the protected areas are located in important ecological source areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The Hengduan Mountains are the most important, showing a centralized, contiguous, and grouped distribution pattern.
(2) The distribution of protected areas is affected by the social economy and natural environment and has a strong correlation with population density and per capita GDP. With the increase in population density and per capita GDP, the number of protected areas increases. The area of protected areas decreases with the increase in population density and per capita GDP after exceeding a certain threshold.
(3) The ecological pattern of ecological sources, ecological corridors, and ecological nodes around the Sichuan Basin in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River was proposed. The study area was divided into five major areas: the source area of the Yangtze River in the national park, the ecological strict protection area of the Hengduan Mountains, the Qinling-Daba Mountain ecological conservation area, the ecological conservation area in the northern Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and the Three Gorges ecological control area. The ecological network pattern of “one park, four districts, and three rings” in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River was formed.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, X.D. and Q.Y.; methodology, X.D.; software, X.D.; validation, Y.K. and Q.Y.; formal analysis, S.L.; investigation, S.L.; resources, X.D.; data curation, S.L.; writing—original draft preparation, X.D.; writing—review and editing, Q.Y.; visualization, Y.K.; supervision, Q.Y., and P.R.; project administration, Q.Y. and P.R.; funding acquisition, Q.Y. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research was funded by the Projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant No. 41930651).

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Yuan Qin for her help and guidance. Thanks for the support of Yunnan Key Laboratory of International Rivers and Transboundary Eco-Security.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Figure 1. Upper Yangtze River region.
Figure 1. Upper Yangtze River region.
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Figure 2. (a) MSPA classification results; (b) Ecological source distribution.
Figure 2. (a) MSPA classification results; (b) Ecological source distribution.
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Figure 3. Resistance surface of the various types of factors: (a) Elevation resistance surface; (b) slope surface resistance; (c) land use resistance surface; (d) road resistance surface.
Figure 3. Resistance surface of the various types of factors: (a) Elevation resistance surface; (b) slope surface resistance; (c) land use resistance surface; (d) road resistance surface.
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Figure 4. Accumulated resistance surface.
Figure 4. Accumulated resistance surface.
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Figure 5. Gravity model extraction corridor.
Figure 5. Gravity model extraction corridor.
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Figure 6. Ecological network in the upper reaches of Yangtze River.
Figure 6. Ecological network in the upper reaches of Yangtze River.
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Figure 7. Ecological network pattern of “one park, four districts, and three rings” in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Figure 7. Ecological network pattern of “one park, four districts, and three rings” in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
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Figure 8. Number of protected areas and population density per capita GDP. (A) GDP per capita; (B) population density; (C) number of protected areas.
Figure 8. Number of protected areas and population density per capita GDP. (A) GDP per capita; (B) population density; (C) number of protected areas.
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Figure 9. Proportion of each district.
Figure 9. Proportion of each district.
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Table
Table 1. Number of protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River by protection category.
Table 1. Number of protected areas in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River by protection category.
RegionNational ParkNational Nature
Reserve		National Wetland ParkNational
Forest
Park		National Grassland ParkNational GeoparkNational Mine ParkNational Scenic SpotTotal
Qinghai123001007
Tibet011000013
Sichuan1282743219215137
Yunnan1549141328
Chongqing062225091770
Hubei1376021020
Gansu012300006
Guizhou061612030542
Total4538298338531313
Table
Table 2. Resistance values of various factors.
Table 2. Resistance values of various factors.
Resistance FactorsTypeResistance ValueResistance FactorTypeResistance Value
elevation<1000100slope<5°10
1000–20001505°–10°50
2000–300020010°–20°100
3000–400030020°–30°200
4000–500050030°–40°300
>50001000>40°500
land usecultivated land100roadstate road150
forest land20highway200
grassland30railway150
waters50county road100
construction land300
other200
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Dong, X.; Yuan, Q.; Kou, Y.; Li, S.; Ren, P. Distribution and Ecological Network Construction of National Natural Protected Areas in the Upper Reaches of Yangtze River. Sustainability 2023, 15, 1012. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021012

AMA Style

Dong X, Yuan Q, Kou Y, Li S, Ren P. Distribution and Ecological Network Construction of National Natural Protected Areas in the Upper Reaches of Yangtze River. Sustainability. 2023; 15(2):1012. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021012

Chicago/Turabian Style

Dong, Xiangshou, Quanzhi Yuan, Yaowen Kou, Shujun Li, and Ping Ren. 2023. "Distribution and Ecological Network Construction of National Natural Protected Areas in the Upper Reaches of Yangtze River" Sustainability 15, no. 2: 1012. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021012

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