I. Distribution of Tropical Forests in China

Tropics are the regions that extend from the equator north to the Tropic of Cancer and south to the Tropic of Capricorn in astronomy. In Chinese academia, however, there has been much debate about the demarcation of China’s tropical areas for the standards differ in the perspectives of geography, climatology, synoptic meteorology, botany, and soil science. The Vegetation of China and The Forests of China consider the southern China (excluding some higher mountains), to locate within the tropics. Accordingly, tropical vegetation in China is in principle distributed in seven administrative divisions: the Hainan Island and the South China Sea islands, Taiwan Island, the areas south of the Tropic of Cancer in Guangxi, Yunnan and Guangdong provinces, the southern tip of Fujian, and the lower reach of the Brahmaputra River in southeastern Tibet. The northern boundary of tropical vegetation in China varies between 21°N and 24°N, covering 174 counties and cities in 7 provinces (partly in 50 regions). China’s tropical regions account for only 3.2% of the country’s total land area, but it holds 25% of the total number of species and 25.8% of the ecosystem types in China.

Tropical rainforests in different parts of China have distinct characteristics. The rainforests on Hainan Island, the closest to the equator in China, are the most typical tropical rainforests. Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan has long been considered by many foreign experts to be devoid of tropical rainforests on account of its high latitude, high elevation, and arid environment at the beginning of the Tertiary period. This proved to be wrong until a Chinese botanist Cai Xitao (1911-1981) discovered the Parashorea chinensis Wang Hsie, a tree species endemic to the equatorial rainforests of Southeast Asia, in a place called Buwa in Mengla County, Yunnan, in 1974. Today, the Xishuangbanna rainforest is the largest intact tropical rainforest found in high-latitude and high-altitude areas of China. The region has been climatically at the lower limits for tropical rainforests (3°C lower in average temperature and 50% less in rainfall in the driest and hottest area). More surprisingly, the vegetation in Xishuangbanna changes from subtropical to tropical types as the altitude increases and the temperature decreases, quite contrary to what may happen in any other regions of the world. At the end of the 19th century, a team of British adventurers entered Tibet, but only one named Kintapu (transliteration) explored far into the Medog County in 1880 (Medog means “flower” in Tibetan language as the place is rich in plants and flowers in all seasons). He later became a slave and fled to India in 1884. It was by then the tropical rainforest in Medog was made known to the public. The tropical rainforest in southeastern Tibet is found in areas above 29°30′ N, making it the northernmost tropical rainforest in China and the world. It is formed in extremely special natural geographical conditions. In the lower reach of the Brahmaputra River, the geographical environment is very complex, and the low-altitude river valley drops below 200 meters above sea level. The Himalayan Mountains serve as a massive barrier against the warm, moist air from the southwest monsoon in the Indian Ocean, thus forming a complex and diverse ecological environment here. And the Great Bend of the Brahmaputra Grand Canyon, centering on the Namcha Barwa at an altitude of 7,782 meters, constitutes a special water vapor channel, through which the tropical climate is formed along the river valley all the way to 29°30′ N. In the foothills and valleys at the elevation of 600 meters, a large area of moist rainforest dominated by Dipterocarpaceae plants lifts its veil. This area also has the most amazing natural landscape on Earth, with 9 vertical zones on the mountain slopes from the valley bottom to snow-capped peak over 4,000 meters high. As the only area in China with complete vertical zones of vegetation from tropical plants to vegetation types of polar lands, it is reputed as the “Nature Museum” of forest types. In contrast, no iconic species such as Lobeliaceae has been found in the tropical rainforest of Taiwan Province, China, which shares the structure with the rainforests of Luzon in the Philippines. Therefore, Taiwan rainforest is a special type of rainforest in China.

II. Types of Tropical Forests in China

In general, there are four types of tropical forests in China--tropical rainforests (including the moist rainforest, montane rainforest and ravine rainforest), tropical seasonal forests (including the evergreen seasonal forest, semi-evergreen seasonal forest, tropical deciduous forest and forest over limestone), the evergreen forest on Pattle Island of the South China Sea, as well as coastal mangrove forests.

III. Characteristics of Tropical Forests in China

Compared with tropical forests in other countries, China’s tropical forests have five main distinct features as follows. First of all, the area of rainforest in China only accounts for less than 0.2% of the world’s total, ranking 18th in the world. Second, the tropical forest flora of China is transitional and compound. The tropical rainforests in China, part of the Asian rainforest biome, are located in the northern edge of the tropics and influenced by the monsoon, showing significant differences in species diversity and structure as opposed to the equatorial rainforests. The eastern flora is similar to that of Malaysian forest; the flora in western China is dominated by the Indo-Myanmar flora; and that of Southeast Tibet belongs to Indo-Himalayan flora. The Chinese tropical region has generally been recognized to be the area on the northern edge of tropical Asia. Affected by cold currents, the subtropical flora is discovered in the region too. And due to the complex geographical conditions of the northern boundary and climate differences in the eastern and western parts of China, the tropical forest ecosystem in China is more unique and complicated than any other countries in the world. Third, there are many “enclaves” of tropical forests in the areas north of the Tropic of Cancer, within which tropical forests normally occur. The unexpected fact is that tropical moist rainforests are found somewhere near 29°N in China. This high-latitude tropical forest ecosystem is a complex structure with rich species and unique landscape, which is not seen in other parts of the world and of great scientific value. Fourth, China’s tropical forests have nurtured distinctive and diverse ethnic cultures. Dozens of ethnic minorities have lived in the tropical forest areas of Yunnan, Hainan, Guangxi, Taiwan and other parts of China for many generations. Their unique customs and cultures add much charm to the forests where they call home. Fifth, China has a large area of tropical artificial rainforests and economic forests. Though not a major supplier of tropical precious broad-leaved wood, China produces lots of tropical forest products. The abundance of non-wood products is one of the main features of China’s tropical forestry industry. China has long been the first in the world in terms of artificial afforestation areas thanks to its ongoing large-scale afforestation projects.

According to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the world’s total forest area was just 4 billion hectares (3.2% lower than that of 1990, with South America and Africa experiencing the largest net loss of forests), with a forest coverage rate of 31%. Russia, Brazil, Canada, the United States and China were the five most forest-rich countries. Among them, the forest coverage of Russia was 49%, the figure for Brazil was 62%, and China had the 5th highest percentage of forest cover. Ten countries or areas had no forest at all and an additional 54 had forest on less than 10 percent of their total land area. Despite the vast area of forest covered in China, the forest coverage of China only stood at 21.66%, 70% of the world average. China’s growing stock per hectare, the forest per capita and the wood stock per capita was only about 69%, 1/4 and 1/7 of the world average respectively (the latter two were 0.62 hectares and 68.54 m³). The annual timber gap of the country reached 250 million m³ and about 50% of wood had to be imported from abroad. With 5% of the world’s forest resources, China has to support the huge need of 23% of the world’s population for ecological and forest products. In this sense, there is still a long way to go in forest conservation for a country with insufficient forest resources and ecological products featuring poor quality, uneven distribution and fragile ecosystems.

IV. China’s Tropical Forest Management Policies

China’s tropical forest management policies are implemented from three aspects. The first is to protect tropical natural forests. China has successively turned some important forest areas into nature reserves since it established the country’s first natural reserve in Dinghu Mountain in Guangdong Province in 1956. Hainan Province, considering the vulnerability of the island’s independent natural ecosystem, was the first in the country to stop commercial logging of natural forests since 1994. The flooding of the Yangtze River in summer 1998 was a huge lesson for the country. Since 2000, the Chinese government launched a series of natural forest conservation projects in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, the key forest areas of the Northeast regions, as well as some areas from 19 provinces and cities, including Hainan. In 2004, China established a compensation fund system for forest ecological benefits. Currently, China has a complete ban on commercial logging in all natural forests. Second, cultivate forest plantations. With favorable light, heat, water and soil conditions in tropical areas, trees can grow rapidly. The country encourages the cultivation of high-quality, efficient and high-yield commercial plantations to replace and protect natural forests. Third, develop extensive forest management forms. Timber harvesting from the tropical rainforests of China has been terminated. Diverse forms of forest management gradually become the major contributors of commercial timber production. These include the development of tropical ecotourism, ethnotourism, forestry-fruit industry, bamboo and rattan trade, breeding industry, flower industry, rubber processing, rosin processing, and ethnic handicrafts.