1,2,- 1Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, Bremen, Germany
- 2Faculty of Geoscience, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
- 3Hainan Academy of Ocean and Fisheries Science, Haikou, China
- 4State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization of South China Sea, Hainan University, Haikou, China
- 5Project Seagrass, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- 6College of Ecology and Environment, Hainan University, Haikou, China
- 7College of Ecology and Environment, Hainan Tropical Ocean University, Sanya, China
The tropical island of Hainan is one of China's largest and oldest special economic zones, and its coasts were once lined with mangrove forests, seagrass beds and coral reefs. The beauty of these coastal ecosystems underpins its economic potential for tourism, which is currently an important and growing sector. However, activities in other major economic sectors, i.e. agriculture, aquaculture and urbanization/industrialization, are impacting and degrading the integrity of coastal ecosystems and thus their economic potential and the livelihoods of the people.
Intensive coastal development and transformation in the second half of the 20th century, aimed at boosting the economy and meeting the needs of a growing population, came at the cost of environmental degradation and overexploitation of natural resources. A major factor has been the massive deforestation of mangroves and their conversion into brackish water aquaculture ponds. Untreated wastewater is discharged into coastal waters, causing eutrophication. Seagrasses are severely degraded, declining in abundance and diversity, and in some places have disappeared altogether. Coral reefs are similarly affected by eutrophication, organic pollutants, overfishing, and other threats. The connectivity of coastal ecosystems is disrupted and the provision of ecosystem services is reduced.
Long-term research in the inter- and transdisciplinary Sino-German collaborative projects LANCET, ECOLOC and TICAS enabled us to delineate the causes and consequences of coastal development on ecosystem functioning, services and connectivity in Hainan's coastal zone. We established a science-society interface and developed and implemented measures for a more sustainable use of the coastal zone together with stakeholders from politics and civil society. Our activities fed into and supported national and provincial policies. Tailor-made approaches for individual stakeholder groups included awareness-raising through educational events in schools, public lectures, stakeholder workshops, radio interviews, art exhibitions and citizen science. Recommendations for decision-makers were published in a policy brief and training courses were conducted for aquaculture farmers. Finally, seagrass conservation and restoration projects implemented by transdisciplinary teams are up and running. The concept of knowledge exchange and the success of the implemented measures have also been published in the scientific literature. Hainan is an example of the problems associated with coastal development that can be observed around the world. It also demonstrates that knowledge exchange and collaboration between science and society can improve the societal use of research results on our way to sustainability. Further collaboration is planned to monitor the impact of policies and measures on ecosystem health and services.
How to cite: Jennerjahn, T., Chen, S., Diao, X., Fedder, B., Herbeck, L., Thomsen, E., Wang, D., Zhang, J., Zhao, H., and Zhao, M.: Toward sustainable use - Science and society working together to mitigate the impacts of coastal development on biodiversity, blue carbon and other ecosystem services, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-630, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-630, 2025.
