Limitations of China’s Current Protected-Area Conservation-Effectiveness Assessment： Evidence from Primates

China’s current standard for evaluating the effectiveness of nature reserves (HJ 1203—2021) takes increases in the population size and expansion of the distribution range of flagship species as core assessment indicators. Based on an analysis of six national nature reserves in which primates are designated as flagship species, this study demonstrates that this evaluation framework has substantial limitations. Although the population dynamics of flagship species are critical to the assessment of conservation effectiveness, they cannot represent their actual functional importance within ecosystems. Many other species occupying the same ecological niche as the flagship species also play irreplaceable ecological roles. Flagship species cannot comprehensively represent the ecosystem as a whole. Ecological studies have shown that competitive interactions among sympatric species indicate that population growth of a single species is insufficient to reflect the structural and functional integrity and stability of biological communities. This paper calls for a shift away from the traditional ”single-species supremacy” assessment paradigm toward an evaluation framework centered on ecosystem function, in which community structure and ecological processes are incorporated as core indicators, thereby enabling a more scientifically grounded assessment of conservation effectiveness.