Oral Session - Human Influences on Landscape and Watershed Processes Chair(s): Lopez, Ricardo ¹, ¹ Landscape Ecology Branch, Las Vegas, NV
Wednesday, March 31, 2004 1:00 PM - 4:20 PM Zeus Room B

Spatiotemporal distribution of fuelwood collection in Wolong Nature Reserve and its implications for panda conservation. He, Guangming^*,1, Colunga, Manuel ², Bearer, Scott ¹, Zhou, Shiqiang³, An, Li¹, Linderman, Marc ¹, Huang, Jinyan ³, Liu, Jianguo¹, ¹ Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, East Lansing, MI, USA² Computational Ecology and Visualization Laboratory, East Lansing, MI³ China’s Center for Giant Panda Research and Conservation, Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, China

ABSTRACT- Among many anthropogenic activities, fuelwood collection has been well recognized as a key factor of habitat fragmentation and biodiversity loss, especially in developing countries. However, little is known about spatial and temporal distribution of those activities. Using data from an extensive face-to-face household survey of fuelwood collection in the past three decades (1970s-1990s) in Wolong Nature Reserve for the world-famous giant panda in China, we found that fuelwood collection sites were getting higher in elevation (100-150m higher / decade), and farther away from household locations (400-500m farther / decade). The sites were also spatially clustered at the landscape level, and unexpectedly several new hotspots of fuelwood collection were related to historical road construction, which was partially supported through international conservation fund. By overlaying fuelwood collection distribution of the past three decades with habitat suitability index maps, we noticed that the majority (varying from 42% to 64%) of fuelwood collection activities occurred in suitable habitat and few were in unsuitable habitat while no fuelwood collection sites were in any marginally suitable habitat. These results have important management implications for several on-going local and national conservation programs.

KEY WORDS: spatiotemporal distribution, fuelwood collection, wildlife conservation, giant panda, Wolong Nature Reserve in China