Claiming green to earn green: Environmental laws and uninhabited islands – a case study of Fangji Island, China

Although Island Studies has been recognized since the mid-1980s, what are often neglected, or merged into the general "island" concept are uninhabited islands (UIs). The world's growing population demands more space by claiming and exploiting uninhabited areas around the Earth, or even outer space while UIs are inevitably considered fair game. Over decades, some UIs became hotspots on sovereignty conflicts because of their borderline location. Recently, more UIs have been leased to private sectors as real estate or tourism resorts. They are, however, still small islands struggling with their vulnerabilities such as fragile ecosystems and limited resources during the development process. For the purpose of strengthening UIs' protection and utilization, since 2003, China has started to establish its island protection act allowing individuals to utilize rationally UIs for a maximum of 50 years. Aiming at analyzing the opportunities and challenges of Chinese UI's development and respecting the ecosystem services they are providing, Fangji Island in Guangdong Province, China was chosen as a case study to carry out quantitative research. This goal is pursued in two steps: (i) by adapting the evaluation system pioneered by Ivandić and Telišman-Košuta to study Fangji Island; and (ii) by developing an approach capable of analyzing the case that examines current Chinese UIs legislation and sustainable development strategies. The result reveals that UIs are indispensable because the ecosystem goods and services they are providing are significant to the planet on which we live. Seemingly the Chinese UIs protection act is a significant progress in island protection history, but they are just sugar-coating economic approaches with environmental protection measures. Since any human activities may influence the fragile island systems, lack of comprehensive guidelines on UIs development will possibly lead to their degradation or collapse. During the development process, a proper mechanism dealing with the UIs' carrying capacity, utilization management, and environmental education must be established, which requires the cooperation of government, island operators, voluntary organizations, and the public.