Reply to Bridgewater and Babin: Need for a new protected area category for ecosystem services

Abstract

We thank Bridgewater and Babin (1) for their perspective. We are aware of, and appreciate, the consideration of ecosystem services in the management of Biosphere Reserves. However, we see a strong imperative for establishing a protected area (PA) category focused specifically on protecting ecosystem services, for several key reasons articulated in our paper (2) and below.First, although China has indeed 33 Biosphere Reserves, all of them were established for biodiversity conservation, excepting one for geological heritage (Table 1). Ecosystem services were not considered in the delineation or establishment of any of China’s Biosphere Reserves, as indicated in the protection targets shown here and in more extensive descriptions available elsewhere.View this table:In this windowIn a new windowTable 1. Biosphere Reserves in ChinaSecond, … ↵1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: gdaily{at}stanford.edu or zyouyang{at}rcees.ac.cn.