Por Albert Yue
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| Photograph by Albert Yue |
Hainan Island is the smallest and southernmost province of China, the only one located fully in the tropics. It provides some of the most fascinating examples of the developments that have led up to and are now occurring under the rubric of what the Communist Party calls “ecological civilization” (生态文明, shēng tài wén míng).
Here, we will put aside the rapid progress of certain productive forces (renewable energy infrastructures, electric vehicles, high-speed trains, etc.) and look at some of the current successes and contradictions in the conservation of fisheries, mangrove forests, and tropical rainforests in Hainan.
Fisheries
The South China Sea is a hotspot of marine biodiversity, with thousands of fish species, amounting to nearly a quarter of the total known fish species on the planet. Hainan is heavily reliant on the commercial fisheries of the South China Sea: the primary sector is responsible for a higher proportion of the GDP of this province than any other in China. As anyone who has lived here knows, fishing and the consumption of fish meat are also highly important in Hainanese lowland culture.
Overharvesting has led to catastrophic declines in fish populations throughout the South China Sea. The construction of artificial islands by various countries has also done considerable harm. The loss of coral reefs to climate change will exacerbate this process. The role of US imperialist encirclement in provoking artificial island construction should always be kept in mind, however.
Since 1999, China has adopted a seasonal fishing moratorium north of 12° N in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea. This encompasses all of Hainan’s coastal waters. The moratorium varies slightly in duration each year: in 2025, it lasted from May 1 to August 16. The volume of boat traffic drops noticeably around Hainan during this period, though certain forms of small-scale fishing are still permitted. Coast guard patrols are a common sight. In addition to the moratorium, some non-mangrove marine nature reserves have been established in the waters surrounding Hainan.
Considering the ongoing ecological crises in the South China Sea (which extend far beyond the decline of fish populations), and the impact of the moratorium on the incomes of fishery workers, it has been clear to Chinese policymakers that much more needs to be done. In late December 2025, the National People’s Congress approved the most significant revisions of China’s national fisheries law in decades. They are scheduled to take effect in May 2026. They will dramatically expand the scope and strictness of law enforcement, but it remains to be seen whether there will be sufficient compensation for damage to fishers’ livelihoods.
Marine animal species often cross the borders of exclusive economic zones. Long-term solutions will ultimately have to involve all the countries bordering the South China Sea. They will somehow have to overcome their increasingly militarized territorial disputes.
Mangrove Forests
Hainan has always had the most biodiverse mangrove forests in China. They continue to provide coastal villagers with vital protection from erosion and storms, as well as aquatic animal resources. However, since the onset of the Reform and Opening period in the late 1970s, the mangrove forests of the province have been severely degraded due to market-driven aquaculture expansion. Seven nature reserves (one national-level, two provincial-level, and four local-level) have been established in Hainan specifically to protect the remnant mangrove ecosystems.
I am especially familiar with Dongzhaigang National Nature Reserve, the crown jewel of the mangrove reserve system. It contains the largest contiguous mangrove forests in China, and is a Ramsar-listed Wetland of International Importance. It borders dozens of villages, many of which have been in their present locations for centuries.
Artisanal fishing and the harvesting of bivalves are allowed, so long as mangroves are unharmed. Free-roaming domestic animals – ducks, geese, goats, etc. – are in practice tolerated. Horseshoe crabs and seabirds are, however, strictly off limits. The former are now officially protected at the national level, and many species of seabirds are protected at the national or provincial levels.
There is barely any surveillance within the reserve; patrols by reserve staff and local law enforcement are also very uncommon. (On the other hand, households bordering the reserve usually have private surveillance.) But people no longer mess with the birds. As one elderly villager told me in 2025, “We don’t hunt birds anymore. We don’t dare.”
Only local villagers are permitted to use boats, with special license plates, in the reserve. There has been some development of mangrove tourism, involving boat trips, boardwalk construction, and the like. Most tourists are from the mainland, but foreign visitors, almost entirely from Russia and Southeast Asia, sometimes show up. This process has had dubious ecological consequences, but it has certainly led to important boosts in income for segments of the local population.
Local villagers have been employed in replanting mangroves and rehabilitating former aquaculture ponds. Some villagers have come to specialize in the production of mangrove seedlings for these restoration efforts. Unfortunately, the invasive mangrove species Laguncularia racemosa (originally from the Caribbean) and Sonneratia apetala (originally from South Asia) were widely produced and planted in the early years of the reserve, and have now spread beyond any hope of eradication. There are still many active aquaculture ponds on the borders of the reserve producing prawns, pompanos, tilapias, and other lucrative commodities for urban consumer markets.
Anyone who visits the villages surrounding the reserve will be struck by the prevalence of large, comfortable, often multi-story homes constructed in recent years or under construction. Sewage and water treatment have made important strides, and there is universal electrification. A large majority of households own at least one electric scooter or electric three-wheeler, and some own an electric car. All this must be seen in the context of the successful nationwide elimination of absolute rural poverty in China, announced in February 2021.
Rainforest Conservation
Hainan contains the best-preserved tropical rainforests in all of China, mostly in the highland interior. Even so, they are a shadow of what existed a century ago. Mass deforestation occurred during the Japanese occupation of the island (1939 to 1945, when a quarter of Hainan’s human population perished as well) and the first few decades after the Revolution.
Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park, which opened in 2021, has welded together formerly fragmented rainforest nature reserves. It has given a lifeline to the Hainan Gibbon (Nomascus hainanus), the rarest primate species on the planet, and now a sort of provincial mascot. Hundreds of millions of renminbi have been spent on reviving its population from the brink.
But this is not a landscape emptied of its human residents. Many people, overwhelmingly from the Li and Miao ethnic groups (officially considered “ethnic minorities”), live in villages within the boundaries of the national park, and thousands live right on the outskirts. Agriculture and forestry are still the main sources of income for people within and bordering the park, but land-use restrictions have caused serious difficulties. Tourism is growing in leaps and bounds, but as with the mangrove reserves on the coasts, this has had problematic ecological consequences. Co-management between park staff and residents is very much a work in progress.
Like other villagers throughout South China (of multiple ethnic groups, including the “ethnic majority” Han), the Li and the Miao of Hainan traditionally protected sacred village groves under customary law. A number of sacred groves remain intact, although now under state regulation. Some Li villagers still obey a traditional taboo on the killing of Water Monitors (Varanus salvator), which have also become protected by the state.
Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park has been one of the crown jewels in the centrally-planned transformation of the province into a “National Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone.” At the very same time, the central government has pushed for another remarkable project that puts Hainan squarely at the head of national economic experimentation. The entire island has just been transformed (starting in mid-December 2025) into a “Free Trade Port”, by far the largest free trade zone in the country. It remains to be seen how the interaction of these large-scale economic and ecological plans will play out.
Let us recall the words of the late great Samir Amin: “I add that green capitalism is still an impossible utopia because respect for the requirements of a political environmentalism worthy of the name is incompatible with respect for the basic laws governing capitalist accumulation.” The road ahead in Hainan, and China more broadly, will be full of pitfalls and possibilities.
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