Current national nature reserves are insufficient to safeguard the long-term survival of wildlife in China

Abstract Enhancing the connectivity of protected areas (PAs) is a global consensus for conserving biodiversity. Yet, it is unclear whether habitats are sufficiently connected within PAs to efficiently protect wildlife populations for long-term survival. Using the perspective of functional connectivity, we evaluated the capacity and limiting factors of the 474 national nature reserves (NNRs) in China in protecting the long-term survival of wildlife populations in their internal habitats. We show that, in general, China's NNRs can effectively protect about one-half of the wildlife populations within PAs for long-term survival. However, they can only protect 25% bird and 13% terrestrial mammal populations with high motility. Areas of low conservation effectiveness are highly overlapped with PAs of small size and high intensity of human activity. Artificial landscapes such as roads and settlements, which account less than 2% area of the PAs, disproportionately cause nearly 40% of the connectivity loss. The results suggest that maintaining high levels of functional connectivity within PAs is as important as maintaining high connectivity in the national or global PA networks. Our findings have important implications for improving the management of PAs in China and beyond.