Ten years ago, after having worked in Shenzhen for 13 years, Wu Zhiyuan, 40, decided to go back to his hometown of Wenchang, Hainan Province, so that he could once again live near the beloved coastal forests of his childhood.

"I always lost myself in the forest playing along the beach when I was a child. I couldn't even see the sand from my doorstep because it was so green everywhere," Wu told the Global Times.

However, when he got there, he was shocked to see that the trees had gone, uprooted to make way for tourism projects.

"The greenery that used to cover the island, especially the coastal areas, disappeared piece by piece, leaving the island bare and without coastal forests," Wu said. "That's why I started to post videos and pictures online, hoping to make the local government aware of the problem and work together with other people to protect the forest."

Together with four close friends, Wu put up pictures and articles on various online forums. "Though the chance of getting a response from authorities is slim, we will keep trying."

Hainan has 1,528.4 kilometers of coastline. Mangroves and casuarina equisetifolia, a kind of she-oak, are the two main types of trees that shelter the island's coasts.

This natural coastal protection has been constantly degraded, first by mining in the 1980s, then by property development and seawater shrimp cultivation in the 1990s. The latest blow came this January, when the government announced plans to develop the province as a world-class tourism spot by 2020.

The first things many tourists will see after arriving in Hainan are hotel resorts, clumps of trees and beaches. However, they may not be aware that the old trees along the coast have been taken down to make way for new development, a practice that environmentalists say will make the island more vulnerable to extreme weather.

Down to business

The government's ambitious plan has made Hainan a business paradise for developers. Total investment in property development in the province comes to 18.93 billion yuan (US$2.84 billion), representing 60 percent of all government revenue in 2008, the Shanghai-based First Financial Daily reported last month.

In 1995, the China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation invested in a 16-year project to build holiday resorts and golf courses.

While tourists may be impressed by the island's new scenery, for natives like Wu, it is a cause of concern.

"Though the new trees look nicer, they cannot withstand the invasion of storms," he said.

That is backed up by Liu Futang, the 63-year-old former chief of the Hainan Forest Fire Prevention Office, who has participated in two aerial shootings of the island's coastal forest, first in 2001 and then in 2007. He told the Global Times that the amount of coastal forest that has been destroyed has gone from 230 to 500 kilometers during that six-year period. "While authorities are putting in place measures to protect the forests, the developers are destroying them at the same time," he said.