The Yangtze is the third-longest river on Earth and it drains the heart of China, from the Tibetan plateau through the gorges and out across a floodplain of lakes and paddy to Shanghai. Something like a third of the Chinese population lives in its basin. It is, by almost any measure, one of the most consequential rivers in the world.
It has also been transformed more completely than almost any other. The Three Gorges Dam is the largest power station on the planet, and the cascade of dams above and below it has cut the river into segments, trapped its sediment, and severed the connection between the main channel and the floodplain lakes where fish spawned. The baiji, the Yangtze river dolphin, was declared functionally extinct in 2006, the first cetacean driven out of existence by human activity. The finless porpoise is going the same way.
The organizations here work to reconnect the floodplain lakes, protect the finless porpoise, and support a ten-year fishing ban on the mainstream that represents one of the boldest freshwater interventions ever attempted.
Environmental Organizations in This Bioregion
5 organizations working across this landscape.
Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden Corporation
https://www.kfbg.org/en/mission-vision-and-values