Abstract:

Background: Biodiversity loss and climate change constitute two of the most pressing global environmental challenges, characterized by tightly coupled drivers and reinforcing feedbacks, and therefore demand synergistic responses grounded in nature-based solutions (NbS). In China, protected areas and Ecological Conservation Redlines possess substantial potential for synergistically addressing the risk sources of biodiversity loss and climate change, especially under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the push toward the “30 × 30” target. However, the existing management and planning systems remain insufficiently articulated to support such practices, highlighting an urgent need for more concrete, operational guidelines and integrated tools. 

Results: This study proposes an innovative framework based on the concept of adaptive management, establishing a closed-loop process of “risk-source identification–synergistically addressing–effectiveness evaluation.” This framework identified four categories of biodiversity loss and climate change risk sources: (1) factors causing loss and degradation of natural ecosystems; (2) factors impeding ecosystem recovery; (3) unsustainable production and management practices; and (4) lack of effective protection for key sites. Correspondingly, four specific NbS pathways were proposed to address these risk sources: protecting natural ecosystems, restoring degraded ecosystems, sustainably managing human-dominated production landscapes, and optimizing the spatial pattern of protected area and Ecological Conservation Redline networks. 

Prospects: The effective implementation of this framework hinges on addressing two critical prerequisites: institutional coordination for cross-jurisdictional landscape planning and capacity building for local managers. With these enabling conditions in place, the framework can equip policymakers and practitioners to synergistically achieve biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, and climate adaptation. Looking ahead, our framework has the potential to support China’s coordinated implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, while offering valuable insights for the international community.

Key words: biodiversity, climate change, protected areas, Ecological Conservation Redlines, nature-based solutions