China’s mangroves more than doubled in area from 1998 to 2020, and the number of bird species recorded in them rose too. Researchers at Ningbo University tracked the change with satellite images and public bird records. Their study was published online in The Innovation in May 2026 C.E.
At a glance
- Forest: Mangrove area grew from about 26,000 acres in 1998 to about 70,000 acres in 2020, according to the study.
- Birds: Recorded bird species rose from 148 to 397. Recorded threatened species rose from 11 to 21.
- Catch: Some of the rise may come from more birdwatchers. Thicker mangroves can also crowd out the mudflats that shorebirds need.
What the study measured
The paper in The Innovation covers five coastal provinces, plus Hong Kong and Macao. The provinces are Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan. Taiwan is not included.
The data end in 2020 because marine records ran out after that. That is why the story stops there.
Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao, and Guangxi made up more than 88% of the gain. Growth was fastest from 2003 to 2008, when about 11,300 acres were added, Environment Coastal & Offshore reported.
The forests also thickened. Average vegetation cover rose from 31% to 38%.
The authors found that mangrove area closely tracked bird diversity. The link was statistically strong, but it shows association, not proof of cause.
How China’s mangroves grew
China lost roughly half its mangroves in the second half of the 20th century, Yale E360 reported. Large-scale planting helped reverse that. Warming let mangroves spread north, and new laws helped young forests survive.
The study points to two policies. One is the 2000 China Wetland Protection Action Plan. The other is the 2009 revision of the Marine Environmental Protection Law.
The authors suggest a chain of effects. Denser mangroves improve coastal water and change plankton communities.
Plankton feeds fish and shrimp, and those feed birds. The model found plankton had the strongest direct effect on bird diversity.
What the numbers cannot show
The bird data come from public observation databases. The authors say birdwatching grew with China’s economy, so some of the rise in recorded species may reflect more observers.
They used a grid method to reduce that bias. It may not remove it.
The method also cannot tell planted forests from natural ones. Other research has found that natural stands hold more wildlife, Yale E360 noted.
Shorebirds are a worry. A separate 2026 study in Hainan found that herons gained when fish ponds became mangroves.
Shorebirds showed no gain, and the authors tied that to the loss of open mudflats. The Ningbo team urges restoring whole wetlands, including mudflats, not just planting trees.
Official figures differ. China’s agencies put mangrove area at about 78,000 acres, up 44% since 2000, Asia News Network reported. Its base year is 2000, not 1998, and the report does not say how area was measured.
Scale matters too. China holds only about 0.2% of the world’s mangroves, according to the same report.
Storms can also undo planting. Typhoon Nuri destroyed about 80% of new seedlings in Guangdong in 2008, Earth.com reported.
Read more
For more on this story, see: The Innovation and Yale E360
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Pakistan has expanded mangroves nearly threefold between 1986 and 2020
- Uzbekistan plants millions of acres of forest where the Aral Sea once lay
- The Good News for Humankind archive on trees and reforestation
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