On the defensive

In 2009, the provincial government spent 100 million yuan (US$14.9 million) on protecting the forests. It also replanted about 3,866 hectares of coastal forests last year.

However, a survey by Greenpeace in August showed that hotels and golf courses are scattered on lands that used to be crowded with coastal forests. The group said the island will now be more vulnerable to natural disasters as a result.

Serious flooding in the island in October resulted in economic losses of 9.14 billion yuan (US$1.37 billion).

"Extreme weather will be a regular thing in the future. That's why the defense ability of the island is vital. I suggest that the local government pay more attention to those trees while improving the infrastructure," Yi Lan, a forest campaigner for Greenpeace, told the Global Times.

Zhong Chonglu, a senior researcher who studies coastal forests with the Chinese Academy of Forestry, is involved in a program on strategic protection of coastal forests in China and Australia. "Australia wants to ban human activity in the forests, but we are trying to protect the forests on the one hand, while making profits from them on the other," he said.

Liu Futang is even more pessimistic about the current situation. "All the coastlines have been sold. Though the forests there might not be destroyed now, they will be replaced in the future. My main aim now is to preserve the natural forests in the mountainous areas in the center of the island that are already being affected by development," Liu said.

The Global Times sent questions to various government departments, including the State Forestry Administration, concerning the situation in Hainan, but none of them replied.

(Global Times December 8, 2010)