Landscape Ecological Integrity Assessment for Forest Ecosystem Improve Protected Area Management Practices

Understanding ecological integrity of protect area is a central topic for the construction and conservation of these key areas. An ecological integrity framework based on landscape ecology was developed in this research, which include a series of index to monitor and evaluate the status and conditions of the landscape among different functional zone in the Xiangjiangyuan Provincial Nature Reserve (XPNR). The result showed that the XPNR has higher ecological quality, and less anthropogenic influence, the ecosystem of the XPNR was generally well maintained. The important landscape types of the XPNR include evergreen broad-leaved forest (EBLF), mixed evergreen deciduous broad-leaved forest (MEDBLF), deciduous broad-leaved forest (DBLF), etc., which have high authenticity and high conservation value. As the result of evaluation of landscape fragmentation and human interference in the three functional zones showed that the core zone < the buffer zone < the experimental zone, which was good to fit the conservation and management requirements of the XPNR. The landscape fragmentation analysis for the important landscape types in all functional area showed that the experimental area and the buffer area were relatively more severe, the core area was lighter with minimal anthropogenic impacts and the most complete protection. As the sustainability and management goal, we suggested some more effectively policies to continuously improve the ecosystem integrity.