Land use dynamics and the fate of indigenous culture in China’s cultural ecological protection areas

• A nov method is applied to evaluate protected areas’ contribution to culture. • Over 36 % of threatened PAs are located in significant indigenous regions. • 86 % of threatened indigenous PAs have medicinal cultures at risk potentially. • Indigenous PAs face greater challenges from climate change and policy uncertainties. • There is an urgent need to align ecological and cultural diversity with SDGs. With the global expansion of protected areas (PAs) and increasing involvement of indigenous communities, understanding their impacts on indigenous peoples is crucial. This study evaluates the extent to which China’s national cultural ecological protection areas (CEPAs) safeguard indigenous culture, using land-use disturbance as a key metric to assess impacts on cultural keystone species (CKS). We employ a multi-step evaluation framework that reclassifies land use, identifies environment-dependent CKS, and analyzes land-use dynamics by comparing disturbances before and after CEPAs establishment. Our results reveal that, despite overall improvements in land conditions, over 36 % of all CEPAs are in land disturbance threat or warning status and all of these are indigenous CEPAs, indicating a disproportionate disturbance burden on indigenous communities. Notably, traditional medicinal practices are particularly vulnerable. These findings underscore the urgent need for policies aligning ecological diversity with cultural diversity to support the global commitment to expand PAs to over 30 % of Earth’s land and oceans by 2030.