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Conservation
Lifestyle

Can China’s Hainan Island, a hotspot of wildlife and nature, retain its rich biodiversity amid huge development?

  • New plans to transform Hainan into a business and tourism powerhouse have raised questions about how it can protect its unique natural environment
  • Hong Kong’s Bosco Chan has been working with mainland Chinese scientists and conservationists to protect the island’s environment and species

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A female gibbon grooms a juvenile at the Bawangling National Nature Reserve in Hainan, China. The island is a biodiversity hotspot with some highly threatened endemic species, but has received relatively little conservation attention, one expert says. Photo: Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden
Stuart Heaver

The southern Chinese island province of Hainan is home to 9.5 million people and is known for its industrial estates and busy seaside resorts. Yet away from the rapidly developing coastal cities, it boasts an estimated 4,200 species of plants, more than 300 species of birds, 104 different kinds of reptiles, almost 100 breeds of mammals and 37 different kinds of amphibians.

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The towering hardwood forests of the island’s nature reserves are home to some of the most endangered species in the world, many of them unique to China and some found only in Hainan.

“It’s a biodiversity hotspot with some highly threatened endemic species, but has received relatively little conservation attention,” says Bosco Chan Pui-lok, head of Kadoorie Conservation China, a department of Hong Kong’s Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden conservation and education centre.
Bosco Chan at the Bawangling National Nature Reserve in Hainan. Photo: Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden
Bosco Chan at the Bawangling National Nature Reserve in Hainan. Photo: Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden

However, new plans unveiled by Beijing to transform Hainan into a business and tourism powerhouse have raised questions about how the tropical island can protect its rich and unique biodiversity.

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Last month, China’s National Development and Reform Commission announced that a total of 3.5 billion yuan (US$500 million) would be allocated to improve Hainan’s free-trade port, showing that the island’s economic development is a national priority. The funds will be used for infrastructure construction at the port, according to the commission.

Chan has been working on the island since 1998 and his small team includes conservationists based in Hainan all year round. He visits at least five times a year to monitor a range of projects undertaken in partnership with local park authorities, universities and conservation groups.

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