sustainability Article Research on a Biodiversity Conservation Value Assessment Method Based on Habitat Suitability of Species: A Case Study in Gansu Province, China Xiaojiong Zhao 1,2,3, Jian Wang 1,*, Junde Su 4, Wei Sun 3 and Haoxian Meng 3 1 Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; [email protected] 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 3 Gansu Academy of Eco-Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; [email protected] (W.S.); [email protected] (H.M.) 4 Gansu Vocational & Technical College of Nonferrous Metallurgy, Jinchang 737100, China; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: Quantitative assessment and evaluation of ecological parameters and biodiversity con- servation are prime concerns for long-term conservation of rare and endangered species and their associated habitats in any ecological region. In this study, Gansu Province, a biodiversity hotspot, was chosen as the research area. We predicted the distribution patterns of suitable habitats for rare and endangered species. The replacement cost method was adopted to calculate the conservation value of rare and endangered species. The suitable habitat distribution area of rare and endan- gered wild animals reached 351,607.76 km2 (without overlapping area), while that of plants reached 72,988.12 km2 (without overlapping area). The conservation value of rare and endangered wildlife is US $1670.00 million. The high-value areas are mostly concentrated in the south and north of Citation: Zhao, X.; Wang, J.; Su, J.; Gansu Province. The conservation value of rare and endangered wild plants is US $56,920.00 million. Sun, W.; Meng, H. Research on a Biodiversity Conservation Value The high-value areas are mostly concentrated south of Gansu Province. The conservation value Assessment Method Based on Habitat is US $58,590.00 million a year, and its distribution trend is gradually decreasing from northeast Suitability of Species: A Case Study to southwest, with the highest in the forest area south of Gansu Province, followed by the Qilian in Gansu Province, China. Mountain area in the north. These results are of great significance for future improvement of the Sustainability 2021, 13, 3007. https:// evaluation index system of ecosystem services and the development of ecosystem services and doi.org/10.3390/su13063007 management strategies. Academic Editor: Ivo Machar Keywords: biodiversity; biodiversity conservation priority zone; rare and endangered species; replacement cost method; Gansu province Received: 12 January 2021 Accepted: 26 February 2021 Published: 10 March 2021 1. Introduction Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in Biodiversity is an important fundamental feature of this vibrant planet and is im- published maps and institutional affil- portant for the promotion of the survival and sustainable development of human society. iations. Protecting biodiversity is not only essential for maintaining the function of the Earth’s ecosystems, it is also the basis for the diversification of ecosystem services and is of great significance to human wellbeing [1,2]. With the development of social productivity, the capacity of human beings to transform nature is constantly improving. Such activities of conquering and transforming nature enrich the material foundation of human beings. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. However, improper land use, such as blind urbanization, industrialization, expansion of This article is an open access article farmland, and deforestation, can lead to the degradation of natural habitats, and decline distributed under the terms and and loss of biodiversity [3,4]. In particular, rare and endangered species are the most conditions of the Creative Commons affected. According to a recent study [5], rare species can make substantial contributions Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// to some ecosystem services in many ways. With the decline of biodiversity, some species creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ become scarce, and their marginal value therefore increases. In other words, the value of 4.0/). biodiversity is generated by scarcity; thus, only scarcity is valuable. Sustainability 2021, 13, 3007. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063007 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2021, 13, 3007 2 of 30 At present, the evaluation of biodiversity value is actually calculated as the evaluation of the economic value of one or several biological resources [6–9]. The economic value of biodiversity is similar to that of ecosystem services, but the role and value of genes, species, and ecosystems are more emphasized [10]. The evaluation of biodiversity can reflect the direct benefits of the various organisms as resources for food, material, medicine, and so on. However, it is difficult to valuate biodiversity through ecosystem services such as supporting, regulating, and cultural. These values include indirect values such as protecting species and their habitats, scientific research, etc., which can also provide human wellbeing. With the deepening of biodiversity conservation research, some unique and glob- ally important ecosystems are more important for the protection of rare and endangered species and their habitats [11]. At present, global biodiversity management focuses on the protection of rare and endangered species and ecosystems. To protect these species and ecosystems, China has established 32 priority biodiversity conservation areas, accounting for 28.76% of the total land area [12]. These rare and endangered species rely on the ecosys- tem, which cannot be replaced by other regions, for their survival. Quantitative assessment of the protection value to the habitats of rare and endangered species is a hot topic in biodiversity conservation research [13]. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) [14] framework holds that biodiversity and ecosystem services have multiple interrelationships. Biodiversity supports various ecosystem services from various scales, thus increasing the human wellbeing via various mechanisms. To avoid double counting, no value assessment is placed on it. However, if all biodiversity values are used as supporting services, some indirect values of biodiversity will be omitted. According to research results [15], as a part of biodiversity value, the protection value of biodiversity does not overlap with other ser- vices, and the protection of rare species and their habitats is not reflected in other ecological services; therefore, it is necessary to carry out quantitative assessment. The resources of rare and endangered species have their own public attributes, and people cannot use the traditional economic methods to evaluate the economic value [16], so people have no intuitive understanding of its importance, which is also one of the important reasons for the continuous reduction of species habitat and the acceleration of the sharp deceleration rate of species [17]. Therefore, it is the premise used when formulating relevant conservation policies to make clear the conservation value and importance of different regions through the valuation of rare and endangered species [18]. However, due to the public nature of wildlife resources, people cannot use traditional economic methods in this assessment. Since 1991, when the environmental committee of the International Federation of Sciences proposed the quantitative assessment of biodiversity value, researchers have performed significant exploratory research on biodiversity valuation methods [17,19–21]. Valuation methods can be divided into three categories: the actual market approach, alternative market approach, and virtual market approach [10,22]. The above three methods can be used to evaluate the value of biodiversity from different aspects, and they all have different scopes of application: the market price method is applicable to the evaluation of service and product with market price, the alternative market method is applicable to the evaluation of the indirect use value of biodiversity without market price, and the simulated market method is mainly applicable to the evaluation of non-use value of biodiversity. The biodiversity conservation value calculated in this study is an indirect use value, which is suitable for the alternative market method. This method indirectly infers people’s preference for the environment by examining people’s market-related behaviors, especially the price paid or the benefits they obtain in the market closely related to the environment, in order to estimate the economic value of environmental quality change. This method is relatively mature and is especially suitable for the calculation of non-physical use value and indirect use value. Scholars have also carried out exploratory studies on the value of biodiversity con- servation [6,23–25]. However, from the perspective of research objects, scholars have con- ducted research on the value of single species, such as single wild animal species [8,26,27] Sustainability 2021, 13, 3007 3 of 30 and single wild plant species [28,29]. Of course, scholars are more inclined to study wildlife species, and little research has been conducted on wild plants. In addition, scholars prefer to study flagship species with important conservation value, as well as rare endangered animal and plant species with high market value, such as Pantholops hodgsonii [8], Ailuropoda melanoleuca [27], and Panthera tigris ssp.