The Tibet Autonomous Region of China constitutes a unique and fragile ecosystem that is increasingly influenced by development and global climate change. To protect biodiversity and ecosystem services in Tibet, the Chinese government established a system of nature reserves at a significant cost; however, the effectiveness of nature reserves at protecting both—biodiversity and ecosystem service functions in Tibet is not clear. To determine the success of existing nature reserves, we determined importance areas for the conservation of mammal, plant, bird, amphibian, and reptile species, and for the protection of ecosystem service functions. The results indicated that important conservation areas for endangered plants were mainly distributed in the southern part of Nyingchi City, and for endangered animals, in the southern part of Nyingchi and Shannan Cities. Extremely important conservation areas for ecosystem service functions of carbon sequestration, water and soil protection, and flood regulation were mainly distributed in the southern part of Nyingchi and Shannan Cities, northern and southeastern parts of Nagqu City, and southern part of Ngari area. Based on an analysis of spatial overlap in protection areas, we conclude that existing natural reserves need to be expanded, and new ones need to be established to better protect biodiversity in Tibet Autonomous Region.

A total of 214 sampling sites of a hazardous waste disposal center were surveyed in a two-stage pollution investigation, including soil boreholes and groundwater monitoring wells. Results showed that chemical oxygen demand (COD) (4.00–2930.00 mg/L), fluoride (0.07–9.08 mg/L), chromium (0.12–1.20 μg/L), nickel (0.15–459.00 μg/L), lead (0.10–10.20 μg/L), cadmium (Cd) (0.05–16.40 μg/L), and beryllium (0.06–3.48 μg/L) were detected in groundwater samples. For soils, Cd in soil (78.7 mg/kg) exceeded the risk screening value (65 mg/kg) for soil contamination of the second type of development land (GB36600-2018), and there remained the risk of leakage in the landfill detection investigation. Then, a health risk assessment was carried out. Based on the definitions of the groundwater exposure pathway (HJ 25.3-2019) and the pollution investigation of groundwater, the carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks of groundwater were generally considered to be negligible. The carcinogenic risk and non-carcinogenic risk of the concerned pollutant in soil for risk assessment (Cd) under the condition of reutilization exceeded the corresponding acceptable levels (1E-06 and 1). The (non-)carcinogenic risk of Cd mainly came from oral intake of soil and inhalation of soil particles under two conditions of reutilization and non-utilization, so on-site workers and surrounding residents should be properly protected from the mouth and nose to minimize the intake of pollutants from the soil and soil particles. The area of soil contaminated by Cd was about 630.58 m², and the amount of pollution was about 1261.16 m³. The heavy metal pollution was only distributed in the depth range of 0–2 m, and the suggested risk control value of soil pollutants under the condition of reutilization for Cd was 56 mg/kg. Based on different pollution characteristics of soil, groundwater, and the landfill, targeted control measures were proposed.

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To effectively control soil pollution, an action plan (called Soil Plan) was carried out by Chinese government in 2016, which may cost CNY 1.14 trillion during the 2016–2020 period. To evaluate the potential impacts of this action plan on the national economy and environmental control, this study employed a closed macro input-output model to quantitatively account for the economic and environmental impacts from the view of the whole domestic supply chain. Our results show that the implementation of the Soil Plan may stimulate economic development and bring more jobs. It will help generate a gross domestic product (GDP) of CNY 2.72 trillion, with CNY 358.11 billion (15%) made from direct contributions, and CNY 2.36 trillion (85%) from indirect contributions. Meanwhile, the scheme could also produce 2 million jobs within five years, of which 580,000 (29%) are a direct contribution, and 1.42 million (71%) are an indirect contribution. On the other hands, increased demands for products and services of various sectors (such as power/heat production and supply, and chemical products) would also cause more air and water pollutants along with domestic supply chains. The emissions of sulfur dioxide(SO₂), nitrogen oxide(NO_x), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen(NH₃-N) would increase by a total of 5.20 × 10⁵ t, 5.27 × 10⁵ t, 1.62 × 10⁵ t and 9.36 × 10³ t, respectively. Our results may raise the concern about the indirect impacts of an environmental policy for the policy maker from both economic and environmental perspectives.