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Conservation of the Yangtze River Basin, China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2021

Peizhong Liu Open the ORCID record for Peizhong Liu [Opens in a new window] ,
Meihan Liu Open the ORCID record for Meihan Liu [Opens in a new window] ,
Guangchun Lei Open the ORCID record for Guangchun Lei [Opens in a new window] ,
Qing Zeng Open the ORCID record for Qing Zeng [Opens in a new window] ,
Yiyu Li Open the ORCID record for Yiyu Li [Opens in a new window]  and
Peter Bridgewater Open the ORCID record for Peter Bridgewater [Opens in a new window]
Peizhong Liu
Affiliation:
Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China E-mail [email protected]
Meihan Liu
Affiliation:
Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China E-mail [email protected]
Guangchun Lei
Affiliation:
Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China E-mail [email protected]
Qing Zeng
Affiliation:
Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China E-mail [email protected]
Yiyu Li
Affiliation:
Hunan University of Arts and Science, Hunan, China
Peter Bridgewater
Affiliation:
University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia
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Abstract

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Type
Conservation News
Information
Oryx , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , May 2021 , pp. 331 - 332
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC BY 4.0
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International

The Yangtze River flows for c. 6,300 km from the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau to the Yellow Sea at Shanghai, with a watershed > 1,800,000 km2, 20% of China's land area. This immense system of rivers and lakes has a rich biodiversity, including many endemics, and provides multiple ecosystem services. Although the river also supports a large human population and generates > 30% of China's GDP, it faces many severe ecological and environmental challenges. China has, however, proposed sustainable development of the whole Yangtze River system. Following visits by President Xi Jinping to Chongqing, Wuhan and Nanjing in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in 2016, 2018 and 2020, respectively, he decreed that conservation and restoration, and avoidance of excessive development, must become priorities.

In 2020, a 10-year ban on fishing in the Yangtze River was implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, with fishing in all tributaries prohibited. The effects of this ban are already clear in the lower reach of Yuan River, a tributary of the Yangtze River, where a larger population of scaly-sided merganser Mergus squamatus, a prodigious fish-eater, was able to overwinter in 2020 as a result of greater food availability.

The Landmark Yangtze River Protection Law was adopted by the National People's Congress Standing Committee, China's top legislature, on 24 December 2020, and entered into force on 1 March 2021 as the country's first legislation on a specific river basin. This law bans fishing in all natural waterways of the river, and in its tributaries, estuaries and feeder lakes. It consolidates conservation of the Yangtze River and provides a reference for development of legislation for other river basins.

To complement this law, a draft Wetland Protection Law was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on 20 January 2021. It is the country's first national legislation focused on conserving its wetlands. When passed, this second law will prohibit any organization or individual from destroying waterbird habitats and other wetland biodiversity.