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

Springer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 14 - Trang 611-621 - 2013
De-Li Zhai1,2,3, Jian-Chu Xu1,2, Zhi-Cong Dai4, Charles H. Cannon3,5, R. E. Grumbine1,2
1Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Biogeography, Kunming Institute of Botany (CAS), Kunming, China
2World Agroforestry Centre, China & East Asia Node, Kunming, China
3Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, China
4School of the Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
5Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA

Tóm tắt

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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