At a recent symposium in Changsha, leading officials from the provincial and municipal committees of China’s People’s Political Consultative Conferences (CPPCC) of 11 provinces and municipalities situated in the Yangtze’s drainage agreed to cooperate in protecting the river and called for the enactment of law on protection of wetlands as soon as possible in order to regulate the related administrative mechanism and achieve unified protection and management of the river.

Four threats harass the “Mother River”

The Yangtze River, often referred to by Chinese as the “Mother River”, now faces four major threats, of which wetland shrinkage caused by reclaiming land from lakes and urban development is the most critical.

Wuhan, capital city of Hubei Province, was once honored as “City of One Hundred Lakes” for its abundant water resources. However, due to the drive for economic profit, only 27 lakes remained by 2000; Dongting Lake, also in Hubei Province, is China’s second largest freshwater lake. But, due to silting and land reclamation from marshes around its edge, water area of the lake has shrunk by 1,725 square kilometers.

Wetland shrinkage directly lowers the flood storage capacity of such areas; when combined with the existence of high flood dykes, it means that over 60 percent of water resources of the Yangtze River are released into the sea. According to statistics from the World Wide Fund for Nature’s Yangtze River Project, the river valley now floods once every two years on average.

Pollution is another threat endangering the wetland eco-system. Statistics show that more than 140 million tons of industrial sewage are discharged into Chaohu Lake of Anhui Province annually; in China’s famous heavy-industrial base of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, waterworks feeding the needs of numerous large and medium-sized enterprises draw water from the Yangtze River and release 70 percent of their waste water back into it untreated.

The reduction in bio-diversity and the disappearance of wildlife, brought about by wetland eco-system deterioration, are also prominent problems. Some rare species such as white-flag dolphin, black finless porpoise and Chinese sturgeon are on the brink of extinction. Environmental deterioration also blocks the communication between human and nature, the WWF has warned.

Protective endeavors are underway

The 11 provinces and municipalities along the Yangtze River valley are now taking a series of protective measures.

l       Establishing nature reserves. Jiangsu Province plans to have 45 percent of its wetlands and 99 percent of its rare wetland wildlife resources effectively protected after 50 years of nature reserve development. The province also plans to build up a 74,000-square-meters nature reserve in 2010, offering a green passageway for endangered and rare species in the Yangtze River estuary.

l       Enlarging lakes and wetlands. Shanghai plans to build seven large artificial lakes, each covering 1-12 square kilometers. The plan is for the water area coverage rate of the city to increase to 10 percent by 2010 and 11 percent by 2020 through building more artificial lakes and conserving wetland.

l       Enacting related laws and regulations. Wuhan City led the nation in issuing regulations on protection of lakes. Under these regulations, boundary posts were set up by the municipal government to delimit the lake area, greenery belts and surrounding control region, which are represented by “blue line”, “green line” and “gray line” respectively. In addition, seven sewage disposal plants have been built.

l       Protecting rare wildlife species. Illegal activities of destroying wetland resources have been strictly dealt with in three nature reserves located in the east, south and west of Dongting Lake and Hengling Wetland Reserve, saving many endangered species. At present, recorded species of bird in those regions amount to over 200, of which seven are under state first-level protection.

The WWF Yangtze River Project – “Join Hands in Protecting the River of Life” – was launched in 1999, aiming to take 25 years to rehabilitate the vitality of the Yangtze River and add more charm.

Awaited Law on Protection of Wetland

Leading officials from the provincial and municipal committees of the CPPCC of 11 provinces and municipalities involved in the seminar put forward three suggestions on wetland conservation.

First, to enact laws on protection of wetlands. Forests, oceans and wetlands are three major eco-systems. In China, only a law on protecting wetlands is still absent. They jointly suggested that the State Council submit to the National People’s Congress (NPC) for early enactment a Law on Wetland Protection as well as individual regulations on wetlands of great importance, such as Dongting Lake, Taihu Lake, Poyang Lake and so on.

Second, unified management of the River valley. For the sake of overall planning and centralized coordination, inter-provincial or inter-municipal coordination organizations should be founded where lakes or wetlands cover territory under different authorities.

Third, to speed up the implementation of a series of projects, including the “Dongting Lake 4350 Project” to enhance reclaiming of farmland and outward migration of farmers, so as to restore original ecological conditions of lakes and wetlands.

Related figures about the Yangtze River

The Yangtze River is 6,300 kilometers long, and is the third longest in the world. It has a drainage area of 1.8 million square kilometers;

Freshwater resources along the Yangtze River valley accounts for 40 percent of the nation’s total;

The Yangtze River valley is one of China’s most important economic belts, generating 40 percent of the gross national product;

The Yangtze River valley is rich in bio-diversity. There are over 300 varieties of birds and 200 varieties of fish in the Dongting and Poyang lakes alone;

The Yangtze River connects the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with the East China Sea, offering irreplaceable ecological effects.

(China.org.cn translated by Zhang Tingting, October 22, 2003)