THE REBIRTH OF TROPICAL RAINFOREST - ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION PLANNING FOR SANDA MOUNTAIN OF XISHUANGBANNA, CHINA

Tropical rainforest, a unique forest ecosystem with the richest biodiversity on the earth, is now suffering from rapid biodiversity loss and ecological degradation. Xishuangbanna is such a typical example in China, where the ecosystem of Sanda Mountain is fragmented by agricultural practices and rubber plantation, and the vegetation productivity decreases sharply, threatening its role in the regional ecological security pattern. For an overall ecological improvement of the study area, since 2017, the project team has examined the existing habitat conditions in Sanda Mountain and proposed a thirty-year planning scheme for the ecological restoration by introducing constructive and pioneer plant species, employing a mixed-species planting mode, and facilitating the natural regeneration of vegetation community to recover natural succession through ecological restoration planning at patch-, corridor-, and regional-scales. The team simulated the changes in carbon storage, habitat quality, and ecosystem service value before and after planning via the InVEST model to guide the dynamic adjustment of the tropical rainforest restoration. This exploratory ecological restoration planning for such a large-scale tropical rainforest may provide research and practical references for other studies in China and abroad.