Prioritizing individual conservation features in multi-objective conservation planning: a study case in Gansu Province, China

Maximizing overall conservation benefits in conservation planning always leads to inadequate conservation of certain features, thereby reducing conservation effectiveness. To address this issue, we treated each conservation feature as an independent unit and conducted a conservation planning across three biodiversity levels-species, ecosystem, and landscape-in Gansu Province, an ecologically diverse region in China. By evaluating different Zonation-based prioritization scenarios (species, ecosystem, and landscape priority and comprehensive), we systematically assessed the conservation effectiveness as well as the synergies and trade-offs among these biodiversity levels. Results showed that different biodiversity levels exhibited synergistic relationships overall, however this relationship displayed spatial heterogeneity. Pronounced synergies occurred in forest and grassland regions (e.g., Qilian Mountains), whereas significant trade-offs were evident in desert and farmland areas (e.g., Hexi Corridor). The species priority scenario achieved the most effective outcomes among all scenarios, including high coverage for key species, more than 20% coverage for desert species that were poorly conserved in other scenarios, and substantial coverage for ecosystems (55.4%) and landscapes (41.6%). Our results demonstrated the effectiveness of using protected species as a proxy for multi-objective conservation planning in ecologically heterogeneous regions and provide scientific support for achieving the Target 3 of Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in Gansu and other areas.