The effectiveness of connectivity of existing biodiversity corridors in Central Annamite, Vietnam

Abstract

Biodiversity corridors can promote wildlife conservation by facilitating movement between habitat patches if carefully planned. The biodiversity corridors in the Central Annamite Landscape, Vietnam, were legally established in 2018. However, there has been no detailed modeling or surface analysis undertaken to assess their effectiveness. If biodiversity corridors are not well planned and rigorously monitored, they could lead to human-wildlife conflicts and create ecological sinks. Here we assessed the potential effectiveness of biodiversity corridors between five protected areas in Quang Nam and Thua Thien Hue provinces with the aim of identifying opportunities for improving connectivity via forest restoration and infrastructure mitigation. The Linkage Mapper toolset in ArcGIS was used for the connectivity modeling process using cost-weighted distances. In the absence of robust empirical biodiversity data for this region, we relied on a panel of local species experts to generate a consensus resistance surface. A total of 152,200 ha was identified as potentially effective biodiversity corridors, primarily consisting of natural forests without roads. Barrier areas were found near roads, emphasizing the importance of linear infrastructure mitigation to promote connectivity. Our results provide a quantitative assessment of opportunities for enhanced corridor effectiveness in the Central Annamite Landscape and demonstrate the application of expert-based approaches as a first step to connectivity conservation in data-challenged biodiversity hotspots. Subsequent studies using species-specific empirical data remains a critical future step to improve our understanding of functional connectivity in the Central Annamite Landscape.