Evaluating the effectiveness of protected areas in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province in protecting vegetation types and proposing the optimal network

The most important goal of the protected areas of a country or region is to protect examples of the most valuable elements of biodiversity in this network. Therefore, the network of protected areas usually needs to be evaluated and revised in terms of the criterion of "representativeness" for the total biodiversity and optimization planning in terms of this criterion if need. in the present study, the representativeness of the Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari protected areas network has been evaluated in terms of vegetation types and an optimal distribution has been proposed for these areas. For this purpose, first, based on the rarity and species diversity, a minimum percentage of each type that should be introduced in the protected areas was determined as conservation goals. Then, the current protection status of vegetation types and their protection deficits or excesses were determined by overlaying the maps of protected areas and vegetation types. Using the Marxan, a decision support software, a network of proposed areas that meet the vegetation types conservation goals, as much as possible in the minimum area, were identified. The results showed that determined conservation goals meet only for 37 out of 106 vegetation types by existing protected areas. In order to meet the determined goals for all vegetation types, taking into account the existing protected areas, 14.47% and 30.07% of the total area of ​​the province are needed in the optimal and summed solutions, respectively. Without considering the existing protected areas, 19.086% and 37% of the total area of ​​the province are needed in the optimal and summed solution, respectively. Also, the results showed that the existing and proposed protected areas overlap by 8.5% in the optimal solution and 12.85% in the summed solution. Also, most of the priority areas for protection are located in the eastern half of the province from north to south.