Reconciling Rubber Expansion with Biodiversity Conservation
Reconciling Rubber Expansion with Biodiversity Conservation
复制标题
协调橡胶扩张与生物多样性保护
DOI：
10.1016/j.cub.2020.07.014
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发表时间：
2020
期刊：
影响因子：
9.2
通讯作者：
D. Edwards
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Maria M. H. Wang;Luis Roman Carrasco;D. Edwards
2003年至2017年，东南亚大陆和撒哈拉以南非洲地区有超过500万公顷的热带森林被砍伐，用于橡胶种植[1，2]。随着橡胶需求的增加，预计将有数百万公顷的土地被进一步清除，这将对生物多样性产生重大影响[3]。一个关键问题是如何协调橡胶扩张与生物多样性保护。我们评估了在满足全球未来橡胶需求的同时保护受威胁的两栖动物、鸟类、哺乳动物和爬行动物的可行性。我们比较了非洲、亚洲和新几内亚橡胶生物气候适宜性与灭绝脆弱性的空间一致性[4]，这些地区大规模种植橡胶是可行的，并模拟了不同情景下的橡胶扩张。我们没有发现具有最高橡胶适宜性和最低灭绝脆弱性的“双赢”地区。预计橡胶需求可以通过允许主要在新几内亚和非洲几内亚的扩张来满足。然而，新几内亚有很高的生态系统完整性，这两个地区都有丰富的地方病。各种设想表明，只改变适合耕种的土地将造成最大的生物多样性损失，包括濒危物种，而优先保护只会导致改变非常不适合耕种的土地。平衡生产与保护的折衷方案可以将生物多样性损失减少三分之二，保护大多数濒危物种，同时保持高橡胶适用性。开发高产哈代无性系扩大了双赢地区的数量，也扩大了灭绝风险高的适生地区。这些权衡表明，克隆研究和发展，战略性的公司和政府的土地使用政策，以及严格的影响评估，需要防止严重的生物多样性损失的橡胶发展。
Over five million hectares of tropical forest were cleared across mainland Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa for rubber plantations between 2003 and 2017 [1, 2]. Millions of hectares of further clearance are predicted as rubber demand rises, which will have major consequences for biodiversity [3]. A key question is how to reconcile rubber expansion with biodiversity conservation. We assessed the feasibility of simultaneously meeting global future demand for rubber with conservation of extinction-threatened amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles. We compared the spatial congruence of rubber bioclimatic suitability with extinction vulnerability [4] in Africa, Asia, and New Guinea, where large-scale rubber cultivation is viable, and simulated rubber expansion under different scenarios. We found no "win-win" areas with highest rubber suitability and lowest extinction vulnerability. Projected rubber demand could be met by allowing expansion primarily in New Guinea and African Guinea. However, New Guinea has high ecosystem intactness and both regions are rich in endemics. Scenarios suggest converting only areas suitable for cultivation would cause the largest biodiversity losses, including endangered species, whereas prioritizing conservation would result in only the conversion of highly unsuitable land. Compromise scenarios that balance production with conservation could cut biodiversity losses by two-thirds, protecting most endangered species while maintaining high rubber suitability. Development of high-yielding hardy clones expands the amount of win-win areas, as well as suitable areas with high extinction risk. These trade-offs reveal that clonal research and development, strategic corporate and government land-use policies, and rigorous impact assessments are needed to prevent severe biodiversity losses from rubber development.