Developments threaten the wetland

Having effectively taken over the coastal areas of Hainan province, real estate developers have turned their gaze to the island's wetland, contributing to its disappearance, according to an ecological expert.

"The impact of real estate development on Hainan's wetland is obvious. A lot of wetland has been divided by developers to accommodate apartments and golf courses," said Jiang Haisheng, a professor at South China Normal University's School of Life Sciences in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

Wetland coverage was reduced by more than 13 percent in the decade after 2003, said Jiang, a Guangdong native who has studied the island's ecosystem since 1982 and sees himself as a Hainan local.