4.3 Conclusions and management implications
In our study region, forests conversion does not appear to cause strong
changes in diversity and community structures of small mammals. Our
results indicated that the establishment of local protected areas and
the retention of parts of the primary forests is effective in protecting
biodiversity, at least for small mammals. However, we still know little
about how the other components of the forest ecosystem interact with
small mammals. Further work is thus required to determine whether
fundamental ecosystem processes in converted forests are altered by
changes in resource availability, competitor and carnivorous predator
species and abundance, even if the small mammal assemblages remained
consistent (Terborgh et al., 2001).
Finally, our results indicated that small mammal diversity in the
plantation forests was significantly lower than that in the primary
forests, probably due to the lower diversity and abundance of shrubs and
understorey vegetation at the plantation forest sites. To finely restore
biodiversity, we suggest keeping proper planting distance and avoiding
excessive density in the plantation forests, which could increase the
diversity of trees, shrubs and understorey vegetation.