Yangtze
Threats
Today, the Yangtze River Basin is a region struggling to contend with the environmental problems arising from population pressure and rapid economic development. In the last half century, China's population has more than doubled and become heavily concentrated along the major river valleys. With an unprecedented economic boom, the pressure on natural resources is also increasing.
Climate change
Logging, fishing and hunting to meet demands of the Chinese market pose threats to biodiversity as far away as Africa. It is estimated that by 2025 the nation will be the world’s leading producer of greenhouse gases and with it, the effects of climate change.
Forests
In spite of their biological richness, or perhaps because of it, the Yangtze and particularly the Minshan have been threatened for many years by state-owned timber production and agricultural encroachment. For example, in only 15 years between 1974 and 1989, half of all the forest once occupied by giant pandas in Sichuan Province was wiped out by commercial logging. Almost all the natural habitats, including nature reserves, face pressure from people in surrounding communities, who hunt and collect both plants and animals for medicinal purposes. Demand for fuelwood has in some places stripped the forests of their vegetative cover. Poorly planned development projects have, among other things, created barriers for panda migration along the animals' traditional routes.
Habitat and biodiversity loss
Ill-planned hydrological engineering projects, which interrupt the natural flow of rivers, and conversion of wetlands for agriculture and unsuitable construction and infrastructure projects in the flood plain have destroyed ecosystems and driven species out of their natural homes. Of all the species listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) as critically endangered, one quarter is found in China.
