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Russia & ChinaBruce G. Marcot
updated: 19 May 2026
images
photos and stories of Russia ... from my Ecology Picture of the Week (EPOW) -- a growing collection
photos and stories of China ... from my Ecology Picture of the Week (EPOW) -- a growing collection
publicationsjournals, book chapters ---------- (listed in chronological order)
Marcot, B. G. 1994. Report on tigers and leopards of the Russian Far East and northeast China. Report for: Ecologically Sustainable Development, Inc.and USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 5 pp.
Abstract: This report presents information I gathered on the status of Siberian tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) and Far East leopards (Panthera pardus orientalis), during my 30 April to 22 June 1994 travels throughout Far East Russia and northeast China.
Marcot, B. G. 1996. Tiger habitat corridors in Far East Russia, northeast China, and northern North Korea: need for a conservation strategy. Report for: Ecologically Sustainable Development, Inc. and USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 4 pp.
Abstract: The following is a brief summary of a potential conservation strategy for Siberian tiger habitat corridors in the Far East. This report results from field outings to many of these locations and from discussions with tiger experts I had in the Far East during 31 July to 16 August 1995.
Marcot, B. G., S. S. Ganzei, T. Zhang, and B. A. Voronov. 1997. A sustainable plan for conserving forest biodiversity in Far East Russia and northeast China. The Forestry Chronicle 73(5):565-571.
Abstract: An ongoing, trinational project is providing the first environmentally sustainable economic development plan for the Ussuri River watershed (URW) in Far East Russia and northeast China. The URW is host to a unique mix of northern taiga and southern subtropical biota, and contains many endemic, relict, and highly threatened species of plants and animals. In Russia, severe monetary inflation and a shift to a market economy have left some aspects of forest biodiversity in jeopardy, particularly policing for wildlife poachers, regulating CITES (international wildlife trafficking) violations, ensuring long-term sustained production of timber and non-timber forest products, protecting unique habitats, and adequately staffing scientific reserves and funding needed research. In China, broad scale conversion of remaining wetlands to agriculture and rice paddies, and of diverse native forests to intensively managed, monocultural plantations, is helping to sustain the economy but is sacrificing biodiversity. A proposed sustainable land use plan has (1) mapped resource use areas, including both proposed and existing transborder nature areas, (2) encouraged foreign investment in both countries, and (3) encouraged sustainable development of natural resource markets that will be compatible with long-term conservation of biodiversity. A hallmark of this plan is integrating the needs of the people with the capacity of the land through both environmental protection and wise resource use.
Marcot, B. G., and J. B. Nyberg. 2005. The future of forest biodiversity conservation amidst development: reflection and vision. International Forestry Review 7(5):21.
Abstract: Evaluating anthropogenic influences on biodiversity should span freshwater, aquatic, marine, and terrestrial environments. Protected areas alone cannot save biodiversity because boundary effects pervade landscapes, as learnt from the situation in Zimbabwe. Instead, we should clearly articulate goals and realistic expectations for biodiversity elements on each land use allocation, as being attempted in India. Relying only on threatened, endemic, indicator, flagship, and umbrella species will not suffice. We must look across taxonomic and functional groups, and also better account for local extirpations of species, subspecies, demes, and metapopulations. We need a clear classification and valuation method of ecosystem services. Trends of simplification as seen in Germany and China, and the conversion and loss of forests witnessed in Ecuador, have degraded biodiversity, but variable retention in Canadian forests and selection harvesting practices adopted in Russia, can help maintain forest biodiversity elements. Integrating cultural and religious interests with sustenance and conservation will be a major theme in Alaska, , northern Canada, Malawi, and northeast India. We need to emphasize biodiversity conservation more at local project scales as in Cameroon and Congo, and encourage partnerships among landowners and local residents. Governments can assist by providing incentives for stewardship as well as legislated conservation mandates and targets. Landscape ecology should be used to redesign urban sprawl and reduce impacts on hydrologic systems as in Florida. Ultimately, population density and growth in countries like China, India, and Mexico will determine what our planet will be capable of producing and supporting for centuries to come.
Marcot, B. G., and M. G. Raphael. 2012. Conservation of martens, sables, and fishers in multispecies bioregional assessments. in: K. B. Aubry, W. J. Zielinski, M. G. Raphael, G. Proulx, and S. W. Buskirk, ed. Biology and conservation of martens, sables, and fishers: a new synthesis. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York. 451-470 pp.
Abstract: We review conservation strategies and guidelines for Martes species from several multispecies bioregional assessments throughout the world. We define a multispecies bioregional assessment as an evaluation of a species' status, habitat, ecology, and conservation needs at broad scales of geography and environmental conditions that integrates assessment and objectives for other species and ecosystem values. We review how conservation of Martes species is addressed in such assessments at broad landscape and regional scales, including descriptions of habitat conditions and patterns (e.g., forest structural and age classes, forest patch sizes, connectivity, and provision of key habitat elements) and integration with other regional-scale guidelines (including management for other species). Examples presented include bioregional assessments of sable (M. zibellina) in Far East Russia and northeastern China; Nilgiri marten (M. gwatkinsii) in south India; and Western marten (M. caurina), American marten (M. americana), and fisher (M. pennanti) in the Columbia River Basin of the western United States; Sierra Nevada of California, U.S. Pacific Northwest; and southeast Alaska. We summarize these examples and present steps that can provide a general framework for multispecies bioregional assessments, and identify Martes species and locations where such assessments are lacking and could be developed.
