By Zhao Peng, Zhu Rongpeng, People\u2019s Daily<\/p>\n
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The gross ecosystem product (GEP) of the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park in south China\u2019s Hainan province, a pilot area of the country\u2019s national park system, surpassed 204.5 billion yuan ($31.6 billion) in 2019, according to research results released on Sept. 26.<\/p>\n
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GEP, referring to the total economic value of all the final ecosystem products and services supplied by ecosystems to human well-being and economic and social sustainable development, mainly includes the value of material products, regulating services, and cultural services provided by ecosystems.<\/p>\n
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Li Yide, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), believes that GEP, which places a price tag on ecosystem products and services and specifies the amount of their economic value, helps people better understand that a sound ecological environment means tremendous wealth for Hainan, home to China\u2019s densest, best-preserved, and largest contiguous tropical rainforest.<\/p>\n
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Besides, the calculation of GEP is an essential precondition for promoting its application in ecological protection incentives, ecological damage compensation, financing for ecosystem product and service development and operation, as well as trade in ecological resource rights.<\/p>\n
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The calculation of the GEP of the national park mainly requires drawing a map of ecosystems in the region, determining ecosystem products and services to be calculated, collecting data and establishing models, measuring the biophysical value of ecosystem goods and services, as well as pricing them and calculating their monetary value.<\/p>\n
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During the first step, drawing a map of ecosystems, the national park was divided into different geographical units, each of which was marked with its ecosystem type, tree species, height and crown density, as well as other attributes. Then 19 indexes under the three indicators of material products, regulating services and cultural services were considered in the GEP calculation for the national park.<\/p>\n
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To obtain these key parameters, the research team conducted extensive field research, with more than 200 fixed sample plots set up, and conducted interviews and questionnaire surveys.<\/p>\n
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Pricing ecosystem goods and services is necessary for determining their value based on previous surveys.<\/p>\n
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\u201cFor ecological products that haven\u2019t entered the market yet, we mainly calculate their monetary value through a surrogate market approach and a simulated market method,\u201d pointed out Chen Dexiang, director of the Jianfengling national field scientific observation and research station for forest ecosystem in Hainan under the CAF.<\/p>\n
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\u201cTo put it simply, a surrogate market approach means determining the value of non-marketed ecological goods by replacing them with similar ones with known prices; and by a simulated market method, we price non-marketed goods based on consumers\u2019 willingness to pay,\u201d Chen explained.<\/p>\n
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The GEP calculation has improved people\u2019s ecological awareness. \u201cI never thought the natural environment in my hometown can be so valuable,\u201d said Fu Jingkai, secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) committee in Qingsong township, Baisha Li autonomous county of Hainan. The township is located in the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe can also try including the total value of ecological products in the comprehensive performance evaluation of the achievements of CPC committees and governments in promoting high-quality development,\u201d Li noted.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Based on GEP, it is also possible to establish a benefit-oriented mechanism for ecological and environmental protection, and encourage local governments in China to establish diversified capital investment mechanisms, and call on social organizations to set up ecological public welfare funds to promote the realization of the value of ecological products, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Zhao Peng, Zhu Rongpeng, People\u2019s...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40715,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40714\/revisions\/40715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}