Hainan sows seed of better biodiversity protection

Strategic significance

In April, when he visited the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park, Xi highlighted the need to fully understand the significance of the facility's development and urged continuous efforts in this regard.

Launched as one of the country's first 10 pilot national parks in 2015, the Hainan facility covers 4,400 sq km, about 14 percent of the island's surface area, with virgin forest covering about 95 percent of the virgin forest of the island.

As one of 34 global biodiversity hot spots, the park is home to 3,653 species of wild vascular plants, accounting for 11.7 percent of the total in China.

It also includes the only habitat for Hainan gibbons, the world's most critically endangered primate.

According to the planning for the park, unveiled by the National Park Administration and the Hainan government in 2020, there were 1,885 residents in the core protection area of almost 2,749 sq km.

In March 2020, the Hainan government arranged to move all the residents out of the core area by the end of this year. All the buildings and facilities there will be demolished and returned to tropical rainforest.

Before Fu was relocated in 2020, 142 residents of his old village, situated on Yinggeling Mountain, had been relocated in 2017. Now, as a rainforest conservation ranger employed by the local government, he has seen encouraging changes in the area formerly covered by homes.

Vegetation now covers the entire area. "It is so beautiful. I didn't find the mountains of my hometown so beautiful when I lived there," he said.

Wild animals are frequently sighted in the area, according to Hainan Daily, quoting a media release from the Yinggeling Bureau of the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park Administration.

"After allowing nature to restore itself, we will also facilitate the area's restoration with some remedial measures, hoping that the conservation function of the area's ecosystem can be restored and wild animals will be attracted back," the release said.