Hainan Tropical Rainforest

Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park protects the mountainous interior of the island of Hainan, at the southern tip of China, and preserves the country's most complete and diverse example of continental-island tropical rainforest. Unlike oceanic islands, Hainan was once connected to the mainland, which explains a biota that combines continental elements with a high degree of island endemism.

Its emblematic species is the Hainan gibbon (Nomascus hainanus), regarded as the most threatened primate in the world. It was once reduced to some twenty individuals in a single fragment of forest; thanks to habitat protection, the restoration of corridors and continuous monitoring, the population has grown slowly, from 30 animals in 2019 to 37 in recent years. It is an extreme case of conserving a single population, where every birth counts in the global balance of the species.

The forest is also home to the Hainan Eld's deer, the pangolin, pheasants and a notable diversity of amphibians, reptiles and insects, along with a tropical flora with numerous endemics. Creating the park involved relocating settlements in the core zones and converting plantations back to natural forest. It forms part of the first group of five Chinese national parks, officially established on 12 October 2021.