China Economy: Exploring tropical rainforest national park in Hainan

Spanning more than 4,000 square kilometers, Hainan’s Tropical Rainforest National Park stands as the largest tropical rainforest on a continental island. Beyond its expansive size, the park plays a vital role as a gene bank for germplasm resources. Let’s take a look.

Established in 2021, the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park boasts impressive biodiversity. It hosts 149 species of national rare plants, seven of them first-class like Hopea hainanensis and Cycas hainanensis C.J. Chen.

The park is also a habitat for 145 species of national rare wild animals, including 14 first-class, such as the Hainan gibbon and Panolia eldii. And thanks to conservation efforts, the Hainan gibbon population in the park has shown significant recovery, now at 37 individuals across six groups as of July this year.

QI XUMING, Section Chief, Bawangling Section, Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park “For other rare animals and plants, such as orchids and hopea hainanensis, we protect them via in-situ and ex-situ conservation methods, ensuring their populations gradually increase.”

The park covers nine cities and counties. Hainan has integrated scattered nature reserves into one. In recent years, the province has accelerated the construction of a smart rainforest project, installing an electronic monitoring system consisting of surveillance cameras, vibration optical fibers, vibration sensors, and other equipment.

WU WANLI, Staff Member, Wuzhishan Section, Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park “The entire area is monitored by our national parks, including specific data on animals and plants. We have a total of seven zones, with data presented for each individual zone.”

The park has recently initiated a comprehensive resource survey and monitoring project. This marks the first extensive and systematic background survey and monitoring effort undertaken since the park’s establishment. The project is poised to be completed by the end of this year.

ZHOU YADONG, Chief engineer, Hainan Forestry Bureau “Through systematic monitoring, we need to conduct baseline surveys of various ecosystem resources in the national parks to promote ecological restoration, as well as the protection and management of the national parks.”

LIAO ZHU Hainan “As a concentrated, diverse and well-preserved continental island tropical rainforest, Hainan tropical rainforest is a treasure house of tropical biodiversity and genetic resources. The ecological protection measures here will also enhance global biodiversity. Liaozhu, Sansha Satellite TV in Hainan for CGTN.”