TY - JOUR

T1 - Criteria and Indicators to Define Priority Areas for Biodiversity Conservation in Vietnam

AU - Vu, Xuan Dinh

AU - Csaplovics, Elmar

AU - Marrs, Christopher

AU - Nguyen, Trung Thanh

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by the Chair Group of Remote Sensing of the Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, Germany, and the Vietnam National University of Forestry. We would like to express our gratitude to the experts, researchers, and officials involved in the study, particularly those from the protected areas in Vietnam, IUCN Vietnam, Biodiversity Conservation Agency (MONRE), Department of Nature Conservation (MARD), Forest Protection Department (MARD), and the Vietnam National University of Forestry for providing valuable data. My special thanks to forest rangers and communities at Cuc Phuong National Park, Pu Luong Nature Reserve, and Ngoc Son Ngo Luong Nature Reserve. Funding Information: This research was funded by the Vietnamese Government Scholarship (3979/QĐ-BGDĐT). The publication of this article was funded by the Open Access Fund of the Leibniz University Hannover.

PY - 2022/9

Y1 - 2022/9

N2 - Balancing biodiversity conservation with land use for agricultural production is a major societal challenge. Conservation activities must be prioritized since funds and resources for conservation are insufficient in the context of current threats, and conservation competes with other societal priorities. In order to contribute to conservation priority-setting literature, we applied an environmental model, Pressure–State–Response (PSR), to develop a set of criteria for identifying priority areas for biodiversity conservation in Vietnam. Our empirical data have been compiled from 185 respondents and categorized into three groups: Governmental Administration and Organizations, Universities and Research Institutions, and Protected Areas. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) theory was used to identify the weight of all criteria. Our results show that the priority levels for biodiversity conservation identified by these three factors are 41% for “Pressure”, 26% for “State”, and 33% for “Response”. Based on these three factors, seven criteria and seventeen indicators were developed to determine priority areas for biodiversity conservation. Besides, our study also reveals that the groups of Governmental Administration and organizations and Protected Areas put a focus on the “Pressure” factor, while the group of Universities and Research Institutions emphasized the importance of the “Response” factor in the evaluation process. We suggest that these criteria and indicators be used to identify priority areas for biodiversity conservation in Vietnam.

AB - Balancing biodiversity conservation with land use for agricultural production is a major societal challenge. Conservation activities must be prioritized since funds and resources for conservation are insufficient in the context of current threats, and conservation competes with other societal priorities. In order to contribute to conservation priority-setting literature, we applied an environmental model, Pressure–State–Response (PSR), to develop a set of criteria for identifying priority areas for biodiversity conservation in Vietnam. Our empirical data have been compiled from 185 respondents and categorized into three groups: Governmental Administration and Organizations, Universities and Research Institutions, and Protected Areas. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) theory was used to identify the weight of all criteria. Our results show that the priority levels for biodiversity conservation identified by these three factors are 41% for “Pressure”, 26% for “State”, and 33% for “Response”. Based on these three factors, seven criteria and seventeen indicators were developed to determine priority areas for biodiversity conservation. Besides, our study also reveals that the groups of Governmental Administration and organizations and Protected Areas put a focus on the “Pressure” factor, while the group of Universities and Research Institutions emphasized the importance of the “Response” factor in the evaluation process. We suggest that these criteria and indicators be used to identify priority areas for biodiversity conservation in Vietnam.

KW - analytic hierarchy process

KW - biodiversity conservation

KW - condition–pressure–response model

KW - priority areas

KW - Vietnam

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85138489566&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/f13091341

DO - 10.3390/f13091341

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85138489566

VL - 13

JO - FORESTS

JF - FORESTS

SN - 1999-4907

IS - 9

M1 - 1341

ER -