A quarter of Hainan island's natural forested areas have been lost in the past decade, according to a report released yesterday by environmental group Greenpeace.
The report accused the provincial government of helping to push the island's ecology to the brink of collapse. However, Hainan's forestry authorities have dismissed the report as 'ridiculous', saying the island's natural forests had maintained their original size and were healthier and more luxuriant than before.
But some tropical rainforest scientists question the claims of both sides, and called on Beijing to launch an inquiry to settle the dispute.
Yi Lan, a Greenpeace China campaigner, who led the study, said Hainan's forests had shrunk by 72,000 hectares between 2001 and last year, after analysing remote sensing data from the US Geological Survey. The rate of loss is equivalent to a daily loss of an area about the size of 27 soccer pitches. To confirm the data, the group collected evidence in the form of photos and videos from several tropical rainforest reserves, Yi said.
Most of the forests that are lost were destroyed by illegal business activities, such as plantations, tourism, and development. More than half are now covered by eucalyptus plantations for paper mills.
'The expansion of plantations will bring disaster to the province's biodiversity and make the region more vulnerable to climate change,' Yi said.