Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China has launched a project to safeguard 55,000 ancient trees in China and promote biodiversity conservation for which it will leverage an innovative insurance plus technology approach.
The company presented its biodiversity protection project, "Ancient Tree Guardian Action", at the 30th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Belém, Brazil. This initiative deeply integrates insurance coverage, technology, and social welfare to establish a sustainable protection system for ancient and notable trees in China, demonstrating the innovative efforts of a Chinese enterprise in tackling climate change and preserving biodiversity.
China harbours a rich heritage of ancient trees, with around 5.08m specimens recognised for their ecological, historical, and scientific significance. These venerable trees, however, face serious threats from climate change, pest infestations, and insufficient maintenance funding. Since ancient trees are widely scattered and their value is difficult to quantify, insurance companies must dedicate extensive resources to individual inspections and ongoing monitoring. This demand places a heavy burden on underwriting capabilities, making it hard for traditional commercial insurance models to offer comprehensive protection.
To tackle this challenge, Ping An introduced an innovative "Insurance + Technology" model, integrating cutting-edge technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT). This model combines assessments of ancient tree growth, geographical location, and historical risk data to enable multidimensional evaluation.
Building on this, Ping An launched Guangdong's first ancient-tree insurance in 2023, creating a full-chain model "pre-disaster prevention, in-disaster emergency response, and post-disaster compensation" mechanism. As of October 2025, the project has provided over RMB700m ($98m) in risk protection for more than 55,000 ancient and notable trees nationwide.