Green Renaissance

China adopts comprehensive measures to protect Yangtze River environment

- Xia Yuanyuan

Stretching over 6,300 km, the Yangtze River is the longest river in China and the third-longest in the world after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America.

Boasting rich biodiversity and mineral and water resources in its basin, the river is seen as the mother river of the Chinese nation and one of the cradles of Chinese civilization.

However, rapid economic development along the river has posed challenges to the ecology of the river. Problems such as overfishing, water pollution and soil erosion have all affected the river and the population along it, calling for efforts toward the conservation of the river.

On January 5, 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over a national conference in Chongqing on the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, a turning point for the river’s environmental health.

In the meeting, Xi said the priority in the progress along the waterway must be given to ecological development to respect natural, economic and social rules. He stressed on a “green development” of the region and pledged to make restoration of the ecological environment an overwhelming task.

Since then, protecting the environment of the Yangtze, rather than large-scale development, has become the focus of the country’s river management plans. China has carried out a series of measures, including cleaning trash, preventing water pollution, banning fishing and patrolling the nature reserves to protect the river.

According to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the marked environmental improvement in the waterway has been done in parallel with development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.