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Increasing tree cover while losing diverse natural forests in tropical Hainan, China

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Abstract

To protect biodiversity and improve environmental conditions, China has invested billions of dollars in reforestation and payments for ecosystem service programs. Here, we examine the Sloping Land Conversion Program, the largest such program in the world and found that after 13 years of implementation at our study site, it has had negative impacts on natural tropical forests. GIS and remote sensing techniques revealed that both natural forests and natural shrub and grasslands were replaced by non-native monocultural plantations on Hainan Island, China, a key tropical biodiversity hotspot. Under current Chinese policy, these plantations are classified simply as “forests”, with the assumption that they are equivalent to natural forests. This lack of a distinction in forest quality has led to substantial deforestation and plantation expansion, including encroachment into protected areas on Hainan. Additional social and economic drivers of these changes were identified by examining the participants in this program and their actions. Without a new ecologically based definition of forests and new goals for reforestation, such programs designed to improve ecosystem services, and forest quality may actually threaten remaining natural forests and other vegetation types in Hainan and in other areas of mainland China.

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Acknowledgments

This research is part of the CGIAR Research Program 6: Forests, Trees, and Agroforestry. This work was also funded by grants from Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Frontiers in Innovation Research to CHC. We thank D. F. Jia for his assistance with early data collection and fieldwork.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Biogeography, Kunming Institute of Botany (CAS), 132 Lanhei Road, Heilongtan, Kunming, 650201, China

    De-Li Zhai, Jian-Chu Xu & R. E. Grumbine

  2. World Agroforestry Centre, China & East Asia Node, 132 Lanhei Road, Heilongtan, Kunming, 650201, China

    De-Li Zhai, Jian-Chu Xu & R. E. Grumbine

  3. Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, 666303, Yunnan, China

    De-Li Zhai & Charles H. Cannon

  4. School of the Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, Zhenjiang, 212013, China

    Zhi-Cong Dai

  5. Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA

    Charles H. Cannon

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  1. De-Li Zhai
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  2. Jian-Chu Xu
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  5. R. E. Grumbine
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Correspondence to De-Li Zhai.

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Zhai, DL., Xu, JC., Dai, ZC. et al. Increasing tree cover while losing diverse natural forests in tropical Hainan, China. Reg Environ Change 14, 611–621 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-013-0512-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-013-0512-9

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