Optimization of the wildlife protection list system from the biodiversity conservation perspective

China’s list of wild animals under state protection, as a core supporting system of the “Wildlife Protection Law,” has been lagging for 32 years without systematic updates and has four major systemic defects: missing revision procedures, unclear listing standards, conflicting connections with international convention lists, and insufficient implementation guarantees. To strengthen biodiversity protection, this paper proposes five major optimization strategies: establishing a dynamic update mechanism with a three-year cycle, solidifying the entire process of standardizing the revision of the list, improving the legal standards for species inclusion and classification, improving the domestic conversion and application rules of international lists, and constructing a phased implementation path guarantee system, to save endangered species and maintain ecological balance through system improvement.