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.