Gretchen Daily, a Stanford University ecologist, is at the forefront of a joint effort with her Chinese colleagues to remap, rethink, and ameliorate China’s current protected areas, where biodiversity and natural resources are threatened. She used advanced mapping software to plan a major expansion of biodiversity havens and restore ecosystems to provide key services such as sandstorm prevention and flood control, and is actively working to develop a conservation strategy that centers community members as China prepares to implement its first national parks system. Photo credit: Stanford University
