As our plane flew over Jiangsu province heading for Nanjing, our guide announced that the Yangtze River would soon come into view. I peered out the small window anxiously awaiting my first glimpse of Asia’s largest river. Having lived most of my life on the flood plain of Arkansas’ White River, I know the respect that any river demands. Through the years, my family has often fled our little town to escape rapidly rising floodwaters. Our community also benefited from the river through crop irrigation, fishing, mussel shells for buttons, and even transportation of bear oil during pioneer days. To put it simply, without the river my hometown would not exist. A river can be a lifeline and a death threat all at the same time. When I finally saw the Yangtze I was not disappointed. It was a monster of a river. The rich, beige silt-laden waters flowed across a wide expanse. I dare say that no one would describe the sight as beautiful, but everyone would agree that the Yangtze River is magnificent.
The Yangtze River is not the largest or longest river in the world, but the population density surrounding the Yangtze brings its influence into a class by itself. One in thirteen people on the planet live in the Yangtze River Basin (1). Like any mature river, the Yangtze has a history of flooding. In the summer of 1998 the River had record flood levels, which killed more than 3,000 people and caused at least 166 billion yuan ($20 billion USD) in damage (2). A somewhat puzzling fact is that even though the 1998 flood levels were records, the volume of water was well below historic highs. According to the Xinhua News Agency, the devastating floods were caused in part by the deforestation along the upper reaches of the Yangtze (3). The deforestation has removed an important natural flood control mechanism, and has also caused soil erosion to multiply, which fills the River with tons of silt. Some five billion tons of soil is washed away annually (4). This is, in fact, the answer to the puzzle of the high water levels and low volume. The Yangtze riverbed is filling with sediment, which raises the channel level and increases the incidence of flooding.
China’s immense population coupled with a history of poor land use and planning has put tremendous burdens on its natural resources. As a result, the Yangtze River watershed has been severely damaged. “Widespread excessive cutting of trees since 1949 has reduced natural water storage capacity and increased the soil runoff into rivers. During the 1950’s the forest cover of Sichuan Province fell from 19 percent to about 6.5 percent and tree cutting was over double the natural tree growth rate” (5). The 1998 floods jolted the Chinese government into extreme action to halt the damage and draw up a plan to restore the River’s watershed to a healthy ecological balance. They put a stop to logging along the River and implemented a large-scale reforestation project. This may sound like a quick fix-all but according to Wang Zhibao, director of the State Forestry Bureau, this plan will require “generations and generations” to undo decades of environmental abuse. “These problems cannot be solved in a short period of time” (6). Even though this is not an immediate solution, the alternative is much worse than imposing self-discipline. Ignoring the ecological balance will simply cost too much, not only in lives lost and destruction of the environment, but also monetarily. The Three Gorges Dam, which will be the largest dam in the world, is an expensive undertaking with high hopes of controlling floods and providing efficient, pollution-free electricity. If the Yangtze waters continue to be saturated with silt, the dam will gradually become less and less productive due to soil buildup within the reservoir. As China strides toward modernization, it cannot afford to continue its maltreatment of the Yangtze because the problem affects the entire nation. The stakes are too high.
Historically the rural people have been the backbone of China’s strength. Likewise they are the key to any success in reclaiming the Yangtze River watershed. China has such little arable land that the encroachment of farmers onto riverbanks has been cited as a significant problem. Dr. Zhu Zhoahua, a renowned Chinese ecologist, has spent years traveling the country educating and training the common farmers thereby providing them with both greater yields and incentive to stay away from cultivating near riverbanks (7). Peasant farmers have been taught to grow cash crops instead of relying on subsistence farming. Something else worth noting is that over a million lumberjacks have lost their jobs due to the reforestation projects. The plan is to provide them with alternative employment that will redirect their work effort into planting trees and forest management. Human behavior has shown us that old ways truly are hard to change. Publicity of relevant laws and regulations will be intensified and human acts that are destructive to soil and water conservancy will be dealt with severely (8). The bottom line for most rural residents is that they must be able to put a roof over their heads and feed themselves. It’s difficult for people to envision the future when they are without shelter and sufficient food. In my opinion, when China’s reforestation plan mentions sustainability it is implying much more than the survival of a forest on a riverbank.
Running deep and wild throughout Chinese thought is an acknowledgment of the dynamic balance of nature’s forces. The Yangtze River is a huge force that has been out of balance for many years. The people have paid the price for ignoring their source of sustenance. Flowing through the heart of their homeland, the Yangtze is a possession to be treasured. Efforts to restore the balance of the Yangtze River are beginning to payoff and good results have already been measured. Forty-one percent of the designated area has been reforested from the original two percent. Over 100 counties have made headway in controlling erosion and the amount of silt in the water of the Yangtze River has dropped approximately sixteen percent. Satellite surveys of Yunnan province, Sichuan province and Chongqing municipality show signs of ecological improvement throughout the River’s watershed (9). Finally, the magnificent Yangtze River is on the harmonious path to achieving its most honorable purpose: sustaining the lands and peoples of China