Yellow River protection efforts stepped up

Yellow River protection efforts stepped up

Subject : Geography

Section: Places in news

Context:

• China’s top legislature passed the Yellow River Protection Law on October 30, 2022.

Yellow River Delta protection reserve:

• The reserve, established in October 1992 to protect the wetlands, covers about 1,530 square kilometres, with the wetlands comprising most of the area.
• The reserve is situated in Dongying, Shandong Province.
• The environment at the reserve has significantly improved over the years. It is now home to many birds.

Causes of destruction of yellow river delta:

• Back in the 1980s and ’90s, coastal erosion, seawater encroachment and drought caused the wetlands to shrink.
• The delta’s rich wetland ecosystems were also seriously threatened by oil production, industrial waste pollution and land reclamation.

Efforts to protect the delta:

• The Yellow River Law, which took effect in April, regulates water use along the river, to which more water resources will be added to supplement the wetlands.
• In recent years, the city has spent 1.36 billion yuan (Rs 15.92 billion) to support 17 wetland protection and restoration projects in the delta, including water supplements, cordgrass treatment, and offshore biodiversity conservation, which has helped strengthen the city’s wetland ecosystem.
• In the past three years, more than 480 million cubic metres of water from the Yellow River has been replenished at the reserve.
• Data from the reserve’s management committee show that this work has effectively alleviated soil salinisation in the wetlands.
• They have built channels and sluices to ensure that water is replenished when needed at the wetlands.
• The reserve management committee divided the wetlands into 49 areas based on the growth conditions for animals and plants, ensuring that each area receives the correct amount of water. Nurtured by the waterway, the animals and plants are thriving.
• Work is being carried out in Dongying to restore seagrass beds and native plants growing along waterways in the wetlands, such as Suaeda salsa, a type of herb.
• Removal of invasive plants:
  • Teaming up with the Chinese Academy of Sciences Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, the local government has created an effective way to eradicate Spartina alterniflora, a type of marsh cordgrass found on the estuary coastline that was seriously threatening the habitats of numerous species.
  • Spartina alterniflora found on more than 8,730 hectares of land has been eradicated in past years, resulting in 76 kilometres of blocked tidal channels being cleared, the management committee’s data show.

Result of the protection efforts:

• Statistics show that the number of avian species in the delta has risen from 187 in the years after the reserve was established to 373.
• Last year, 470 chicks were born to Oriental storks at the reserve, while 315 red-crowned cranes were observed wintering at the wetlands.
• To create a good environment for the birds, they built some small islands on waterways where the Yellow River flows through the wetlands.

About Yellow River:

• The Yellow River or Huang He is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at an estimated length of 5,464 km (3,395 mi).
• Originating at an elevation above 15,000 feet (4,600 metres) in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai province of Western China, it flows through nine provinces, and it empties into the Bohai Sea near the city of Dongying in Shandong province.
• It carries millions of tonnes of soil east every year, some of it reaching the estuary, where the waterway flows into the Bohai Sea in Dongying, forming the wetlands.
• The Yellow River’s basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese, and, by extension, East Asian civilisation.