Foreign media: The Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Botany, in collaboration with international scholars, published a study in "One Earth," revealing that China's native plants are facing an "invisible extinction crisis."
The study used satellite remote sensing data from 1980–2018 and species models to quantify, for the first time at a national scale, the impact of habitat loss on the extinction risk of vascular plants. The results showed that the national plant extinction risk increased by 3.9%, corresponding to a 2.8% reduction in native habitats during the same period. The regions with the highest risk are in eastern China, where more than 90% of plant species reside, but protected areas are small and fragmented, with nearly one-fifth of core area lost; conversely, over 70% of protected areas are concentrated in the west, where the risk is relatively low.
The study points out that although vegetation cover has increased on the surface, native communities and ecological functions continue to degrade, creating a "green illusion" that masks biodiversity loss. Static assessments relying on the Red List of threatened species are difficult to reflect new risks in a timely manner. The study calls for urgent action to incorporate wilderness protection and habitat-based assessments into conservation planning to achieve the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1842300231665672/
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