On April 21, "Dialogue in Hainan", one of the key sub-forums of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference, was held in Bo’ao Town in China's southern Hainan Province. Delegates from governments, businesses, academia, and media all over the world shared insights on issues such as setting up national parks, biodiversity protection, and win-win solutions relating to achieving ecological values.

The "Dialogue in Hainan" Sub-forum was held at the BFA on April 21. HAINAN DAILY

According to Li Chunliang, Vice Minister of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, China has formally announced its first five national parks, covering a total land area of more than 230,000 square kilometers and conserving nearly 30 percent of the country's key terrestrial wildlife species. The 4,400-square-kilometer large Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park is being set up to protect the island’s tropical ecosystem and the native Hainan Gibbons, the world’s most critically endangered primates.  

Erustus Mutembei Kanga (Wildlife Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife in Kenya), one of the panelists at the sub-forum, shared that Kenya has set up 23 national parks, 28 national conservation areas, and 4 national marine parks to protect the nation’s wildlife. He added that the state has also conducted long-term cooperation with a variety of institutions on biodiversity conservation, which have achieved notable results.

According to Paulo Estivallet (Ambassador of Brazil to China), Brazil enacted a law-based framework for regional biodiversity conservation in 2000, and has built up a protection system from the national level, composed of protected areas such as national parks, ecological stations, and wildlife reserves, where only scientific research and ecological tourism is allowed.

The establishment of national parks can not only preserve natural resources for future generations but can also bring both high-quality ecological benefits and tremendous economic value to contemporary society, said Ouyang Zhiyun (Director of the Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences) during the discussion. “It’s preliminarily estimated that the five national parks in China can yield benefits based on ecosystem services valued at 1.08 trillion RMB (166.86 billion USD) annually,” he added.

Martin Raiser (Country Director for China of the World Bank) stated at the sub-forum that if we don't pay attention to biodiversity conservation, there will be a 3.4% loss in annual GDP within less than 10 years. Instead, investing in nature can bring great economic effects. According to the World Bank’s study into wildlife tourism in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, every dollar invested by the local government in wildlife tourism generates a return of 6 to 28 dollars.