Recommendations for Construction and Management of Ecological Public Welfare Forest in Hainan Province

, , , N, ,

Forestry Institute of Hainan Province, Haikou 571100, China

RecommendationsforConstructionandManagementofEcologicalPublicWelfareForestinHainanProvince

YangXUE,RenhuiHONG,DunxiLI*,ZhipanLIN,XiaoyanWANG,ShaofengSU

Forestry Institute of Hainan Province, Haikou 571100, China

This paper firstly evaluated ecological service functions of ecological public welfare forest in Hainan Province. Then, it introduced value structure and existing problems of ecological service functions. Focusing on optimization and adjustment of scale and distribution of ecological public welfare forest, it came up with recommendations for construction and management of ecological public welfare forest in Hainan Province.

Hainan Province, Ecological public welfare forest, Evaluation of ecological service functions, Construction and management, Recommendations

1 Introduction

Currently, ecological crises such as global warming, desertification of land, water loss and soil erosion, aridity, and decrease of species are seriously threatening survival and development of human beings. The earth ecosystem is subject to deep and deep influence of human activities, and people care more and more about interaction between land ecosystem and global changes, and thus need knowing various information of earth ecosystem, so as to provide scientific basis for government making decisions on ecological protection, natural resource management, sustainable development and global climate changes. Hainan Province attaches great importance to construction of ecological environment. As early as 1994, Hainan Province has launched the project of prohibiting felling tropical natural forest; in 1999, it firstly proposed construction of ecological province; in 2004, it made a zoning of 13.45 million mu ecological public welfare forest (0.8967 million ha, accounting for 43.3% of forest area of the whole province); in the period between 2009 and 2013, it implemented the construction of ecological public welfare forest in all mountains and hills. In addition, Hainan Provincial Party Committee and Government pay close attention to protection and construction of ecological public welfare forest. In September 2012, Hainan Province Government approved thePlanforProtectionandConstructionofEcologicalPublicWelfareForestinHainanProvince(2010-2020) at the 80th standing meeting, allocated 13.4578 million mu ecological public welfare forests and determined the spatial pattern of "one zone, one belt, five rivers, and one region". In 13.4578 million mu ecological public welfare forests, tree varieties are various and complex, including natural and planted broad-leaf forest, pinewood, eucalyptus, Acacia confuse, Casuarina equisetifolia, and mangrove,etc, distributed in all cities and counties of Hainan Province (shown in Fig. 1). At the same time, Hainan Province increased input for ecological compensation, promoted establishment of long-term ecological compensation mechanism, and strengthened ecological protection. In 2006, Hainan Province gradually launched the project of compensation for ecological benefits of state-level ecological public welfare forest and regional ecological public welfare forest. In 2013, the amount of compensation for ecological public welfare forest was 20 yuan/mu (300 yuan/ha), the total compensation amount was 269 million yuan, accounting for 0.094% of GDP of the whole province in that year (285.526 billion yuan). How much value of ecological service function can ecological public welfare forest of Hainan Province provide for the society? Whether the existing compensation policy and criteria are reasonable and feasible? These problems are urgently to be solved by government at all levels and industrial management departments. For this, Forest Department of Hainan Province requires Hainan Provincial Ecological Public Welfare Forest Management Center to establish project and carry out special research on evaluation of service function of ecological public welfare ecosystem in Hainan Province. Forestry Institute of Hainan Province undertook this project and prepared the evaluation report.

2 Evaluation results of ecological service functions of ecological public welfare forest in Hainan Province

In 2013, the total value of ecological service function of ecological public welfare forest was 131.607 billion yuan, including 64.327 billion yuan for water conservation (accounting for 48.88%), 10.383 billion yuan for soil protection (accounting for 7.89%), 10.972 billion yuan for fixing carbon and releasing oxygen (accounting for 8.34%), 0.503 billion yuan for accumulation of forest nutrients (accounting for 0.38%), 12.750 billion yuan for cleaning environment (accounting for 9.69%), 5.137 billion yuan for forest protection (accounting for 3.90%), 21.392 billion yuan for protection of biodiversity (accounting for 16.25%), and 6.143 billion yuan for forest tourism (accounting for 4.67%). From structural data of ecological service functions of ecological public welfare forest in Hainan Province, we can see: (i) Due to special terrain of Hainan Island where central area is high while other areas are low, central and southern areas are mainly planting tropical rain forests, the greatest function is water conservation. This is the fundamental condition for disaster prevention and reduction of Hainan Province. (ii) Tropical rain forest of Hainan Province has high species diversity and high value, which provides important biomass resources for sustainable social and economic development. (iii) Tropical rain forest of Hainan Province has excellent functions of cleaning atmospheric environment, fixing carbon and releasing oxygen and protecting forest, is precondition for beautiful natural ecological environment of Hainan province, and also the essential foundation for building ecological province and international tourist island. (iv) Because of rich tropical forest resources, Hainan Province has been included into the project of "one blue one green" ecological tourism (blue is ocean, and green is forest). The ecological tourist value is tremendous. It is not only manifested in tourist value, but also in raising indirect benefit of ecological tourism in the entire Hainan Island.

Fig.1 Distribution of ecological public welfare forest in Hainan Province as per dominant tree species

3 Existing problems in ecological public welfare forest

In the process of preparing the evaluation report, we found following problems: the area of ecological public welfare forest is relatively small in eastern coastal counties and cities; the determination of types of ecological public welfare forest is not accurate and the area of tree species is chaotic; the compensation criterion for ecological public welfare forest is single and relatively low; the conflict between ecological protection and development is implacable; parameters for ecological service functions, especially dynamic parameters changing with years[1], are scarce.

4 Recommendations for construction and management of ecological public welfare forest in Hainan Province

4.1MonitoringthebenefitofecologicalservicefunctionsofecologicalpublicwelfareforestAs for dynamic parameters in this evaluation report, apart from long-time monitoring of tropical primeval forest and secondary forest made by Jianfengling national forest ecological station (since 1957), and monitoring of mangrove and rubber tree made by Dongzhaigang ecological station and rubber forest ecological station, there are also many other parameters to be obtained indirectly through literature search. Therefore, it is recommended to carry out field survey of forest ecosystem in accordance withChinaNationalIndustrialStandardforForestry, pertinently build monitoring stations, carry out corresponding special researches and control tests, including response of water conservation, soil erosion, growth volume, cleaning environment to time, so as to obtain more accurate evaluation parameters.

4.2Adjustingamountandmethodsofcompensationforecologicalpublicwelfareforest

4.2.1Recommendations for adjusting compensation amount. In 2013, the compensation amount of ecological public welfare forest in Hainan Province was 300 yuan/ha (20 yuan/mu)[2], which is relatively meager compared with the ecological service functions. Our evaluation results indicate that ecological service functions of ecological public welfare forest in Hainan Province was 147000 yuan/ha annually (9800 yuan/mu), the compensation amount accounts for 0.204% of the value of service functions. It is recommended to gradually raise the compensation criterion to 1-1.5% in 5-10 years (about 1400-2100 yuan/hectare annually, or 90-140 yuan/mu annually), to effectively protect ecological public welfare forest in Hainan Province, and improve people’s awareness of protecting the ecological public welfare forest. Another recommendation for adjusting compensation amount for ecological public welfare forest is raising the compensation amount on the basis of GDP of Hainan Province. In 2013, the GDP of Hainan Province was 314.646 billion yuan, while the total compensation amount for ecological public welfare forest was 269 million yuan, only accounting for 0.085% of the GDP of the same year; if the annual compensation amount for ecological public welfare forest is gradually increased to 1500-2250 yuan/hectare (100-150 yuan/mu) in 5-10 years, according to the area of ecological public welfare forest and GDP of Hainan Province in 2013, the total compensation amount should be 1.35-2.025 billion yuan, only accounting for 0.43-0.64% of total GDP of Hainan Province. Of course, this is static calculation. Similarly, we can adopt dynamic GDP calculation method to determine the total annual compensation amount. Whether the annual compensation amount of 1500-2250 yuan/hectare (100-150 yuan/mu) is reasonable? At present, some cities have the compensation amount higher than this criterion.

4.2.2Recommendations for adjusting compensation methods. Our evaluation results indicate that because types, location and natural conditions and quality of ecological public welfare forest are different, the value of service functions of ecological public welfare forest is also greatly different, mainly manifested in difference in per unit area value. At present, the compensation method fir ecological public welfare forest in Hainan Province is 300 yuan/hectare. Such amount can not reflect high value of ecological service functions of ecological public welfare forest. Besides, it is not favorable for stimulating enthusiasm of local areas for management, protection and transformation of ecological public welfare forest, and it can not fully manifest political performance of ecological GDP of government at all levels. It is recommended to provide compensation for ecological public welfare forest according to proportion of ecological function value as per regions and grades.

4.3AdjustingkeyconstructionareasofecologicalpublicwelfareforestOur evaluation report indicates that total value of ecological public welfare forest in eastern coastal counties and cities is relatively small, but the per unit area value generated by ecological public welfare forest is huge. This is mainly because total area of ecological public welfare forest in eastern coastal counties and cities is small. However, these counties and cities are areas vulnerable to frequent occurrence of typhoon, especially Wenchang, Qionghai, Wanning, Lingshui, Haikou, and Dingan[3], ecological locations are very sensitive and ecological system is very vulnerable. Therefore, it is recommended to increase construction area of ecological public welfare forest in these counties and cities, to raise overall value of ecological service functions of these areas.

4.4AnalysisandrecommendationsondevelopmentspaceofecologicalpublicwelfareforestAs an island province and the first international tourist island, Hainan Province is characterized by play of protection functions of round-island and coastal shelter forests and development of tropical forest tourism compared with other provinces of China[4]. The forestry of Hainan Province has six largest points. (i) The most unique tropical rainforest: 9.89 million mu; (ii) the best ecological environment: more than 20 million mu evergreen forest; (iii) the largest forest of more than 7 million rubber trees, more than 700000 mu coconut, and more than 600000 mu betel palm; (iv) the most forest of more than 60000 mu mangrove and 14000 mu Vatica mangachapoi forest; (v) the richest tropical wild animal and plant resources: more than 4600 varieties of plants and 570 varieties of animals, Nomascus nasutus and Cervus eldii are unique in the world; (vi) the largest base of amphibian: 20000 crocodiles, 200 million Chinese bullfrogs, and more than 5 million tortoises. The first four points are connected with forest recreation, thus further bringing into play functions and values of forest recreation is of great significance for bringing into play functions of ecological public welfare forest. For this, in the process of construction of ecological public welfare forest in Hainan Province, it is recommended to carry out protection of natural reserve zones, especially tropical primary forest. Besides, it is recommended to further increase recreation value of forest through construction of coastal shelter forest, tropical economic forest, and mangrove. Hainan forest tourism has unique ecological resources which can be used as foundation of competition, but it still takes a long time to become popular. It is recommended to boost competitive power of recreation functions of forestry in Hainan Province through infrastructure construction.

4.5TransformationandrestorationofecologicalpublicwelfareforestIn ecological public welfare forest of Hainan Province, there is shelter forest, timber forest and economic forest with a total area of 201500 hectare (accounting for 22.5%). Most of these are located in ecological sensitive areas (such as water source and river banks). These forests should be gradually transformed to mixed forests of local tree species, to improve their ecological service function. Besides, there is 37148 hectare shrub type forest. Apart from natural shrub communities, it is recommended to restore vegetation of shrub forests and areas suitable for forest construction, and strengthen ecological restoration of public welfare forests, to promote ecological restoration projects in accordance with "first easy and difficult, and location first" principle. It is recommended to strengthen construction of shelter forest in coastal regions, especially eastern coastal areas subject to typhoons. It should bring into full play ecological protection function of shelter forest, increase varieties of shelter trees, and optimize tree species structure and community structure of shelter forest, to really establish the first line of coastal and land shelter[5]. For coastal mud flat suitable for developing mangroves, it is recommended to restore mangrove vegetation, to bring into play ecological service value and function of special forest ecosystem of mangroves as soon as possible.

[1] WANG B, YANG FW, GUO H. Specifications for assessment of forest ecosystem services in China(LY/T1721-2008)[M]. Beijing: China Forestry Publishing House, 2008. (in Chinese).

[2] Forestry Department of Hainan Province. The planning of the protection and construction of public welfare forest in Hainan Province(2010-2020 )[DB/OL]. (in Chinese).

[3] XUE Y, YANG ZY, WANG XY,etal. Ecological functions assessment of mangrove wetland in Hainan Province[J]. Ecological Economy, 2014,10(1):41-47.(in Chinese).

[4] Forestry Department of Hainan Province. Overall planning of tropical forest tourism development of Hainan Province (2011-2020)[DB/OL]. (in Chinese).

[5] LIU XD. Close to nature forest management model on tropical coast Casuarina equisetifolia plantation[D]. Beijing: Chinese Academy og Forestry, 2011. (in Chinese).

November 18, 2015 Accepted: January 9, 2016

*Corresponding author. E-mail: xue13307539989@163.com