Identifying priority conservation areas based on ecosystem services change driven by Natural Forest Protection Project in Qinghai province, China

Natural Forest Protection Project (NFPP) is a national project, with great significance to promote the sustainable development of society and economy. NFPP has driven land use change significantly, altering the provision of ecosystem services (ESs) and influencing human well-being. The selection of priority conservation areas would provide a reference for the further implementation of the NFPP. Here we used the InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) model to perform a comprehensive spatio-temporal assessment of the impact of NFPP on ESs provision, and ordered weighted averaging (OWA) method to identify priority conservation areas by balancing ESs tradeoffs in Qinghai province, China. The results showed that ESs were changed with the increase in forest land due to the implementation of the NFPP from 2000 to 2020. Soil retention, habitat quality, carbon storage and water purification increased significantly, while water yield showed a downward trend during the 2000-2020. By selecting priority conservation areas based on multi-scenarios analysis, the priority conservation areas were mainly distributed in the southern regions of Qinghai province and eastern regions of the Haibei Prefecture, and the area of forest, shrub and natural grass accounted for 6.10%, 32.30% and 69.54%, respectively. This study provides critical knowledge of the impact of ecological engineering on provision of multiple ESs. Selecting the priority conservation areas will be beneficial to ecosystem management and ecological sustainable development of the regions.