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Jabal Shada Protected Area – Where Nature and Communities Thrive Together
Jabal Shada is an isolated twin-mountain granite massif with spectacular scenery characterized by jagged spires, pinnacles, and traditional agricultural terraces. Located in the Al-Baha region in southwestern Saudi Arabia, it supports exceptionally rich floral diversity (nearly 493 recorded plant species) and traditionally important highland crops notably Shadawi coffee. The mountain is both an ecologically isolated element and a cultural landscape. It was declared as a protected area in year 2002 to secure unique biodiversity while supporting local livelihoods and providing nature-based tourism opportunities. Recent management planning emphasizes biodiversity monitoring, community partnerships (including agricultural support and farm-experience tourism), and identification of hiking/ecotourism trails to deliver conservation and socio-economic benefits.
Tackling emerging conservation threats in Africa
This report will showcase the variety of actions undertaken over the years and discuss some of the key lessons learnt, but above all it will provide a platform to appreciate the crucial role that civil society actors and local communities play in protecting threatened species in Africa.
Country brief: Kenya
Kenya, a cornerstone of Africa’s biodiversity, is world-renowned for its rich tapestry of ecosystems from vibrant coastal mangroves and savannahs to arid rangelands and montane forests. Spanning over 580,000 km², Kenya boasts an extensive network of protected areas, including 23 national parks, 28 national reserves, and a growing number of conservancies, now covering more than 6.5 million hectares. These landscapes underpin a robust tourism industry that contributes approximately 10% of the nation’s GDP and provides livelihoods for over one million Kenyans
Country brief: Uganda
Uganda is a biodiversity-rich country home to iconic species including over half of the world’s mountain gorillas. Spanning around 241,000 km², it has a robust network of protected areas including 10 national parks, 12 wildlife reserves, and five community wildlife areas covering over 10% of its land. Key sites like Bwindi, Queen Elizabeth, Murchison Falls, and Kibale National Parks also underpin a thriving nature-based tourism sector, which contributes 7.7% to the national GDP and provides over 667,000 jobs.
Country brief: Niger
Niger boasts a diverse and unique natural heritage, home to several iconic and threatened Saharan species such as the Addax antelope (Addax nasomaculatus), West African giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis peralta), Dorcas gazelle (Gazella dorcas), Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia), and Dama gazelle (Nanger dama). These species play crucial ecological roles and are vital symbols of the country’s biodiversity. However, Niger’s biodiversity is under increasing pressure, with population declines reaching critical levels due to a combination of ecological, socio-economic, and security-related challenges.
Smart Cycad Construction: Building a New Ecological Defense Line
Although the Sichuan Panzhihua Cycad National Nature Reserve covers a small area, it is situated on the outskirts of an urban area where the surrounding region is highly urbanized and industrialized, with frequent human activity. Due to the combined effects of the dry-hot valley climate and human activities, the fire risk is high. As a national nature reserve with exceptionally high ecological value, it faces significant protection challenges, and traditional management methods encounter considerable difficulties. Leveraging technology to enhance conservation efforts, the reserve has implemented a localized smart Cycad informatization system. Equipped with various monitoring devices such as drones, field video surveillance, and infrared cameras, the reserve has established an informatized and intelligent monitoring system. This has successfully created an integrated patrol and monitoring system.
New tool for interpretation of rangeland monitoring and assessment results
To assess a national rangeland health that incorporates variations in ecological potential across Mongolia, a standardized catalogue titled “State and transition model” was developed. The models rely on information and assumptions regarding the reference condition or ecological potential of a rangeland area, as well as the potential shifts to alternative states influenced by management changes and two-way drivers.
The models are built on real field data and expert knowledge. They include information on important plant species, expected productivity, and recommendations for sustainable livestock numbers.
Overall, the model provides not only a snapshot of the current condition and productivity of Mongolia’s rangelands but also clear insights into their risks of degradation and their potential for recovery.
Protecting Plant "Living Fossils": Conservation and Monitoring of Cathaya argyrophylla(银杉) in the Bamianshan Nature Reserve
As a botanical “living fossil,” Cathaya argyrophylla in the Bamianshan Nature Reserve faces severe survival challenges. The extreme drought of 2022 pushed its communities to the brink of withering, exacerbated by habitat fragility, necessitating systematic conservation measures. In 2024, the Bamianshan Nature Reserve launched a specialized protection project for Cathaya argyrophylla. Through labeling individuals, establishing permanent sample plots and monitoring sites, the project systematically investigates population structure and habitat characteristics. These efforts accurately delineate the age composition of Cathaya argyrophylla, assess its natural regeneration capacity, and provide a scientific basis for targeted conservation and climate change adaptation.
Protecting the beautiful home of the southernmost Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana)
I. Background
The Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) is a species that mainly occurs in the Yunling Mountains between the Jinsha and Lancang Rivers, with about 3,800 extant individuals. Yunnan Yunlong Tianchi National Nature Reserve, as its southernmost distribution site, is a key area for maintaining the survival space of the species. Historically, the population of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys in the region has been reduced from four to two populations due to habitat fragmentation, human interference and habitat retreat.
II. Solution Application Approach
1. Standardized monitoring and technology upgrading. Standardize data collection norms: monitor the population 8 days a month, 12 hours a day, recording population size, behavioral rhythms, food habits, etc. to ensure data validity.
Upgrade equipment configuration: Equipped with GPS, infrared cameras, etc. to fill the gap of image records. 5 infrared cameras were installed in the Tianchi population area, successfully obtaining fecal samples and activity traces.
2. Expert team and long-term monitoring system. An inter-agency expert team was formed to solve the problem of insufficient expert guidance in the past.
3. Food resources and habitat management. Establishment of a food resource database: Record the 26 species of plants that the Longma Mountain population feeds on and the seasonal changes in food habits to provide a basis for habitat restoration. Habitat corridor restoration: Prioritize the protection of key vegetation types such as fir forests and Yunnan hemlock forests for the five habitat patches where Longma Mountain populations are active.
4. Man-made disturbance control and community participation. Quantify the types of disturbance: focus on monitoring high-frequency disturbance such as mushroom picking in summer, mark the location of disturbance, and set targeted no-entry periods. Community education: Promote residents’ awareness of conservation and reduce the impact of activities on the monkey population.
Core Challenges
1. Population growth bottleneck: the annual growth rate of Longmashan population has dropped from rapid growth before 2011 to a stable state after 2012, confirming that the habitat is close to the environmental capacity and the habitat quality needs to be optimized.
2. Fragmentation of monitoring data: after standardization, the rate of invalid data has dropped from 53% to a manageable range, and the Tianchi population has moved from “data gaps” to “confirmation of existence”.
3. Threat of man-made disturbance: the intensity of disturbance reached 4.23 in summer, and the seasonal control reduced the stress reaction of the monkey population.
4. Risk of survival of small populations: The survival of the Tianchi population was confirmed for the first time through the deployment of infrared cameras and feces analysis, which provided a basis for the construction of the corridor.
Positive Results
1. Stable population growth: the Longmarsaurus population increased from 127 in 2011 to 190 in 2024, a 49% increase, with a stable population structure, close to the environmental capacity but in dynamic equilibrium.
2. Behavioral and ecological adaptation research: clarify the daily activity rhythms and seasonal dietary changes of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys, and provide scientific support for food resource management.
3. Synergistic effect between technology and community: standardized monitoring has improved the positioning accuracy of human interference, and community participation has reduced the frequency of interference in summer by 15% year-on-year in 2024, providing a replicable model for similar protected areas.
4. Breakthrough in the protection of small populations: The survival of the Tianchi population has been confirmed through fecal and trace monitoring, and as the southernmost population of the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey, it lays the foundation for the study of species distribution boundaries and habitat corridor planning.
Through the integrated strategy of “scientific monitoring-habitat restoration-community governance”, the program effectively mitigated the threats faced by the Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys, such as stagnant population growth, habitat fragmentation and human interference, and provided a closed-loop management paradigm of “monitoring-assessment-intervention” for the protection of the endangered species. This provides a “monitoring-assessment-intervention” paradigm for endangered species conservation.
Gestion artificielle d’espèces végétales pionnières en contexte forestier : aux antipodes de la dynamique naturelle.
La réserve biologique dirigée (RBD) du Hochfeld a pour enjeu principal la conservation d’une exceptionnelle population de lycopodes (6 taxons). Au sein d’une forêt dense de hêtre, un aménagement réalisé dans les années 1960 a occasionné un déboisement et même un décapage du sol. Cette atteinte à la forêt a été suivie de la reconstitution spontanée d’une lande pionnière à éricacées très rase, qui a permis l’apparition des lycopodes. Les conditions n’auraient pas pu être aussi favorables dans le cas d’une coupe forestière, moins traumatisante pour le milieu et qui aurait été suivie d’une reconstitution rapide du peuplement, sans véritable interruption de la végétation forestière.
Il n’y a pas d’historique pastoral dans la RBD du Hochfeld, et le bétail risquerait de toute façon d’occasionner trop de dégâts aux lycopodes. On se trouve dans une situation où l’entretien de la lande se fait donc nécessairement par la combinaison de la mécanisation et d’interventions manuelles.
Artificial management of pioneer plant species in a forest context : at the antipodes of natural dynamics.
The main objective of the Hochfeld Managed Biological Reserve (MBR) – differing from Strict Biological Reserves (SBR) – is the conservation of an exceptional population of lycopods (6 taxa). In a dense beech forest, a development in the 1960s resulted in deforestation and even soil stripping. This attack on the forest was followed by the spontaneous reconstitution of a pioneering wild ericaceous heath, which allowed the emergence of lycopods. The conditions could not have been so favorable in the case of a forest cutting, less traumatic for the environment and which would have been followed by a rapid reconstitution of the stand, without any real interruption of the forest vegetation.
There is no pastoral history in the Hochfeld RBD, and the cattle could in any case cause too much damage to the club mosses. We are in a situation where the maintenance of the moor is necessarily done by the combination of mechanization and manual interventions.
Yerba Mansa Project
The Yerba Mansa Project (YMP) is an Albuquerque-based community-supported non-profit organization started in 2014 to reestablish the connectivity of people, plants, and the land in the Middle Rio Grande Valley. Our work with the Rio Grande Valley State Park supports the health of ecologically and culturally important native edible and medicinal plants and provides an opportunity for people to reclaim their role in caretaking our land and perpetuating our culinary and healing traditions. Regional botanical healing practices are of increased importance as we navigate an ongoing pandemic and will remain integral to the wellbeing of people moving forward. Our volunteers work to restore some of our most legendary nutritive and healing plants, teach youth and adults about their importance, and help to protect critical habitats and associated cultural knowledge for present and future generations.
