Shimei Bay and the Coastal Vatica Forest

The provincial government describes Shimei Bay as a six-kilometre coastline with forest beside the beach. A 2023 open-access study by Hainan University researchers examines the coastal forest dominated by Vatica mangachapoi, including two coastal populations separated by villages, roads and human facilities and a comparison population in lowland rainforest. The paper reports comparable genetic variation across those samples, but it also describes fragmentation and recommends strict protection and planting saplings in forest gaps. The study follows this forest fragment and its relationship to nearby woodland around the bay.