The Far-Eastern Himalaya Landscape (FHL), a shared transboundary landscape between China, India, and Myanmar, is one of the most intact and biologically rich landscapes in the Eastern Himalaya. Yet, the state of biodiversity and its significance are comparatively poorly known to conservationists and policy makers due to low priority in research, inaccessibility, and remoteness. We collated and reviewed 1032 articles relating to biodiversity of the FHL to understand research trends, identify knowledge gaps, and suggest priority research areas for future biodiversity conservation and management in the landscape. Our review showed that the Myanmar part of the landscape is the most studied, followed by the Indian and Chinese parts. The trend of publications in the landscape showed that the earliest publication on biodiversity in the FHL dates back to 1833, while the years from 2001 to 2017 account for almost 80% of the total publications. Most studies focused on species (73.6%), followed by ecosystems (25%) and genetics (1.4%). Mammals were the most studied taxa (22.6%), with a greater focus on charismatic megafauna, followed by arthropods (15.6%), angiosperms (14.8%), insects (13.4%), and birds (10.8%). There were very few publications on lower invertebrates and lower kingdoms, Monera, Protista, Fungi, and Viruses. At the ecosystem level, most studies focused on forests (58.5%) followed by freshwater (32%), agroecosystems (9%), and alpine/tundra ecosystem (0.5%); there were only 14 studies at genetic level. In the FHL, new species have been discovered and rediscovered starting from the early 1930s until 2017. The majority of newly discovered species in the last 18 years are arthropods. The paper reviews past research areas, identifies gaps for future research and intervention, and recommends transboundary collaboration to address these gaps for conservation and sustainable development of the FHL landscape.
Human induced habitat loss is among the primary threats to biological diversity [
The Far-Eastern Himalaya Landscape (FHL hereafter) is a shared transboundary landscape between China, India, and Myanmar [
So far, the state of biodiversity and its significance are comparatively poorly known to conservationists and policy makers due to low priority in research, inaccessibility and remoteness [
Situated between 24° 37′ 40.09′′- 28° 32′ 35.3′′N and 95° 27′ 13.75′′ - 99° 8′ 15.57′′ E, the FHL covers an area of over 71,400 km2 with an elevational range extending from 200 to 5,800 masl. The FHL spans across parts of Northern Myanmar (Namyun in the Sagaing Region, and Tanai, Sumprabum, Putao, Machanbaw, Nawngmun, and Khaunglanphu in Kachin District), including Hkakabo Razi National Park (HNP). In India, it includes Namdapha National Park and Tiger Reserve (NNP & TR) and adjoining buffer areas in Changlang District. In China, the three segments of Gaoligongshan National Nature Reserve (GNNR henceforth) and the intervening areas between them in North-west Yunnan form an integral part of FHL (Figure
The Far-Eastern Himalayan Landscape showing protected areas.
About 53.5% of the FHL is under formal protection in the form of PAs (National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, and Nature Reserves) comprising almost 90% of undisturbed broad- and needle-leaved forests (see Table
Protected areas in the Far-Eastern Himalayan Landscape.
S No | Protected Area | Country | Established year | Area (km2) | IUCN category | Ecosystem | Key mammal species |
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1 | Gaoligongshan National Nature Reserve (GNNR) | China | 1983 | 4,055 | V | Subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests, subalpine conifer forests & alpine meadows | Asiatic golden cat |
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2 | Namdapha National Park & Tiger Reserve (NNP/NTR) | India | 1983 | 1,985 | II | Subtropical broad-leaved forests, subtropical pine forests, temperate broad-leaved forests, alpine meadows, perennial snow | Clouded leopard, |
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3 | Hkakabo Razi National Park (HNP) | Myanmar | 1998 | 3,810 | II | Alpine meadow & shrub, sub-alpine conifer forest, rhododendron forest, montane wet temperate forest, subtropical lowland forest | Black musk deer, |
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4 | Hponkanrazi Wildlife Sanctuary (HWS) | Myanmar | 2003 | 2,703 | IV | Tropical moist forest, subtropical moist hill forest, temperate forest, deciduous forest, alpine forest | Bengal slow loris |
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5 | Hukaung Valley Wildlife Sanctuary/ Extension | Myanmar | 2004 | 6,371/ | IV | Evergreen forest, mixed deciduous forest (moist upper), hill forest (evergreen and pine) | Asiatic black bear, |
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6 | Bumhpabum Wildlife Sanctuary | Myanmar | 2004 | 1,854 | IV | Evergreen forest, evergreen | Asiatic elephant, |
The landscape is home to approximately 213,600 people [
Recognizing the global and regional significance and challenges that lie within the landscape, the governments of China, India, and Myanmar endorsed and initiated the Far-Eastern Himalayan Landscape Initiative (HI-LIFE henceforth) that focuses on regional cooperation for integrated landscape conservation and development [
The study is based on the review of literature pertaining to the biodiversity of the FHL, carried out between June 2017 and May 2018. As the objective was to document the status of biodiversity research and identify gaps for future interventions, the review adopted multiple approaches. Initially, articles were collected using search engines such as Scopus and Google Scholar following Kandel et al. [
We considered the literature with such key words when they appeared in the title, key words, or the abstract. The rigorous search process for extant literature included journal articles, books/chapters, dissertations, institutional reports, proceedings, management, and development plans. The collected list of articles was then again validated with “Publish or Perish” software [
The research led to 30 different sets of datasets considering the set of interchangeable keywords. The list was then combined in Microsoft Excel to eliminate duplicates. The final list of 1032 published documents from the landscape was then considered for analysis. It is important to note here that this research may not have covered all the research conducted in the landscape. However, it does contribute to the baseline information. More importantly, it provides a foundation for examining the existing research gaps for future interventions and priorities.
Our results show that research interest appears to be higher in Myanmar, followed by India and China, whereas the least interest appears to be in the transboundary region of the landscape (publications which included more than one country as their study area were categorized under “transboundary” group for the purpose of this study; see Figure
Site specific records of publications from the Far-Eastern Himalayan Landscape (FHL).
The transboundary region accounted for 7% of the publications and 42% of these carried out at the transboundary level (on the Brahmaputra basin) were published in 2017 alone. This indicates that transboundary conservation using landscape approach has gained popularity in recent years. Furthermore, various organizations including ICIMOD, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, and Mac Arthur Foundation are working for integrating conservation and development through transboundary cooperation in the region. This has resulted in greater research in the region that is transboundary in scale. The increasing number of such studies can promote shared ownership, trust and cooperation. Furthermore, such research has the potential to assist in integrating science and management in wake of the elevated rate of floral and faunal species loss [
The trend of publications was analyzed for nearly two centuries (1820 to 2017) on a three decadal basis. The linear line (see Figure
Pattern of publications from the Far-Eastern Himalayan Landscape.
The conservation value of the region was only realized in the 21st century when international NGOs and national research institutions started investing in conservation issues here [
The analyses of the literature also showed that from 1820 to 2017 the journals
Total number of publications for different biodiversity levels in the Far-Eastern Himalayan Landscape.
A large part of the landscape consists of natural ecosystems: forests supporting a wide variety of habitats, species, and gene pool. The publications were dominated by forest ecosystem (58.5%), followed by freshwater (32%), agroecosystems (9%), and alpine/tundra ecosystem (0.5%). The results show that topics touching upon protected areas of Myanmar (46.6%) dominated the database in forest ecosystem category, followed by India (27.4%) and China (26%). The available literature pays more attention to anthropogenic threats/biotic [
There were 83 researches conducted on freshwater ecosystem including hydrological modelling, limnological parameters and sediment/chemical flux, among others [
With regard to species, 760 studies were conducted on different kingdoms: Animalia (73.5%), Plantae (23.3%), Fungi (1.5%), Monera (0.4%), Protista (0.8%), and Virus (0.4%). Charismatic megafauna accounted for 22.6% of total faunal studies, followed by arthropods (15.6%), angiosperms (14.8%), insects (13.4%), and birds (10.8%). Data deficiency was recorded for smaller mammals due to less research and conservation awareness [
The first research in the landscape was on rufous-necked hornbill
Data on the distribution of research on mammals was strikingly clear. The Bengal tiger
Another interesting phylum was Arthropoda, which was studied mainly in fossilized form in the Cretaceous amber of Hukaung valley, Kachin, and Myanmar. Additionally, 87.9% of the researches carried out were for insects, 13.3% for arachnids, and 0.6% for crustaceans in the GNNR, Namdapha, Hukaung valley, Ayeyarwady, and the upper Chindwin catchment. Butterflies, moths [
Studies for Plantae were prevalent due to the traditional use of medicinal plants and animals [
The review encountered only 14 publications on genetic level studies for the landscape, with only one study at the transboundary scale for the Indo-Burma Biodiversity hotspot [
In the FHL, several new species have been discovered starting from the early 1930s until 2017 (Figure
Species discovered in the Far-Eastern Himalayan Landscape.
Some recent discoveries that are new to science include the snub-nosed monkey, which was discovered in 2010 near the Myanmar-China border [
The rediscovery category contains some species which were not reported by scientists for decades or due to their small species range, anthropogenic/natural threats, and illegal trade. Some examples include a freshly defined spider (after detailed investigation based on the male holotype) from Yunnan, China [
Considering the results of numerical bibliographic analysis from 1820 to 2017, the existing challenges and gaps were analyzed so as to provide directions for prioritizing future research and sustainable management of biodiversity. These data were examined and categorized into the different biodiversity levels as shown in Table
Past research areas, gaps/investments for future.
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Ecosystem | Forest: ecosystem functions, ecosystem services flow, ecosystem valuation | Ecological footprint, forest bio-economy, carbon flux between forests and air, researches on edge effects, Incentivizing effects on forest conservation, wetland ecosystem, rangeland ecosystem |
Transboundary landscape, interlinkage between migration and forest degradation | Assessment of landscape linkage/corridors, climate change and wildfire and their impacts | |
Protected area conservation and management, evaluation, integrated conservation and development, environmental governance, ecotourism, community conservation linkage, diversity and priority conservation, significance of biodiversity, biodiversity assessment, in-situ and ex-situ conservation | Encroachment in protected areas, functional interaction between land cover and biodiversity, carrying capacity of protected areas | |
Mangrove community forestry restoration, forest cover change, land use/land cover change, ecology of forest soil, carbon sequestration | Assessment of land use risk, effects of rising atmospheric CO2 on forest ecosystem | |
Indigenous agro-ecological knowledge, ethnic conflict in conservation, ecological ethics | Environmentally sensitive species, forest engineering, human-wildlife conflict | |
Use of ecological modelling and geospatial tools | Forest monitoring/landscape change, regional scale vegetation mapping/biodiversity; transboundary perspectives; ecological informatics, abatement policies | |
Ecological survey (i.e.: biodiversity hotspots, Eastern Himalayas, India, Namdapha National Park and Tiger Reserve, Hkakaborazi National Park) | Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and environmental auditing | |
Freshwater: eco-hydrology, alluvial morphology, integrated river basin management, sediment flux, water quality assessment, mercury bioaccumulation, nutrient dynamics, benthic macroinvertebrate | Human-induced environmental gradient, species richness of invertebrate, contamination status of water bodies | |
Agro: agro ecosystem function, agricultural intensification and mechanization, ecological agriculture, agriculture practices, shifting agriculture, ethnobotanical study of indigenous knowledge, conservation/potential of wild relatives of crops | commercialization of agriculture, gene pool, genetically modified crops and animals, threat to native species, bio-fertilizer, soil biodiversity, soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics | |
Tundra: conservation of alpine ecosystem | Effects of global warming on terrestrial ecosystem, microbial community change | |
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Species | Taxonomy, ecology and distribution (i.e. small carnivores, birds) | Population ecology |
Dendro-ecology, biodiversity characterization and regeneration | Phylogenetic pattern of species | |
Ecology and habitat use of fauna | Species interaction/predator-prey interaction, resource competition of fauna, silviculture | |
Diversity and conservation of flora and fauna (angiosperms, ant, tortoise, fish, amphibian etc.) | Interlinkage between species diversity and ecosystem function, diversity and ecology, checklist of Protozoa’s, Coelenterates, Platyhelminthes, small mammals | |
Checklist of birds, insects, fishes etc. | ||
Rediscovery of insects and endangered plants, regeneration ecology of tree | Terrestrial invasive plants, pests and pathogens | |
Illegal hunting and motivation, long-term monitoring, conservation plans for tiger and dolphin | Use of mathematical modelling in population ecology | |
Microhabitat in soil, nutritional physiology of mammals, ethno-medico-botany | ||
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Genetic | Diversity of micro-organisms and angiosperms | Genetic engineering, genetic pollution |
Genetic structure and analysis of flora/fauna | Genetic variation of native species, genetic response to environmental stress | |
Molecular genetic method | Wildlife forensic |
At the species level, there was a greater focus on charismatic fauna, and there is a need to focus on small mammals and invertebrates. The greater research focus on charismatic and threatened fauna has led to a dearth of information on smaller animals, putting them at higher risk of extinction with not even a basic checklist of their distribution and population status, as also reported in the Kangchenjunga Landscape [
However, the key identified areas for the above-mentioned gaps and challenges require transboundary collaboration for reaching consensus on the prioritized gaps and actions. There is a need to identify the direction for future collaboration and provide basis for clarified task divisions on each side of the landscape. Higher level leadership and policy support is needed to make local collaborations easier and more effective. Protection, joint conservation of forest and biodiversity resources and sustainable community development in the border areas can be priority areas and actions for future collaboration.
The three countries sharing this landscape are signatory to major multilateral environmental agreement (Table
International/regional environmental agreements, treaties and protocols ratified/accessioned by China, India & Myanmar.
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ASEAN Agreement on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources | - | - | √ |
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Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal | √ | √ | √ |
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Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the CBD | √ | √ | √ |
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Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage | √ | √ | √ |
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Convention on Biological Diversity | √ | √ | √ |
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Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna | √ | √ | √ |
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Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals | - | √ | - |
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Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean | √ | - | - |
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International Tropical Timber Agreement | √ | - | √ |
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Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management | √ | - | - |
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Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC | √ | √ | √ |
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Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity | √ | √ | √ |
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Plant Protection Agreement for the Southeast Asia and the Pacific Region | - | - | √ |
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Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance | √ | √ | √ |
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United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification | √ | √ | √ |
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United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change | √ | √ | √ |
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Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer | √ | √ | √ |
The FHL has been in the limelight for its rich diversity and for new species discoveries in recent years. The initiative taken towards transboundary cooperation and landscape approach by the three countries is timely and our review clearly indicates that the region is of interest to researchers and has the potential for effective conservation interventions. The initiative is also forward looking for the landscape as the three countries share contiguous habitats for many charismatic species. The rich biodiversity of the landscape is still largely intact and could be conserved and managed sustainably if there is greater cooperation among the countries.
At this point, species are the key focus of biodiversity research in this landscape, although many taxa do not even have inventories. The trend shows that Myanmar has the highest number of publications, with maximum focus on arthropods, whereas most research in China is on angiosperms and on mammals in India. The bibliometric study of biodiversity research exhibits a sudden and marked increase in publications from 1990 to 2017 after the three countries signed Multilateral Environmental Agreements and began implementing them. The major challenge is to address the gap of limited research on lower taxa of vertebrates and invertebrates with small geographical range. There are still major gaps in our understanding of habitat use by some of the charismatic species and the potential for conservation corridors to support viable populations. Studies in population ecology are yet to be initiated for most of the taxonomic groups. The study is an important contribution to the understanding of historical and contemporary research trends and gaps in the landscape and provides practitioners, policy makers, conservationists, wildlife managers, and biologists with directions for future biodiversity research, conservation planning, and management of the landscape.
No potential conflicts of interest were reported by the authors.
We express our gratitude to Dr. David Molden, Director General of ICIMOD, for his inspiration and for providing the required facilities. We are also grateful to the Government of China, India, and Myanmar for their continuous support for this initiative. We express our special thanks to Dr Ranbeer Singh Rawal, Director of the GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, India, and Mr Win Naing Thaw, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, Myanmar, for their guidance and support. The editorial inputs from Samuel Thomas from ICIMOD are also acknowledged. The financial support received from the Austrian Development Agency and GIZ for conducting this analysis is highly appreciated.