Screenshot from the video, “Big River Pentium City Living Room” (大江奔腾城市会客厅); inset image courtesy The Paper
The once-endangered Yangtze River Finless Porpoise is now happily thriving in its waters, thanks largely to Nanjing’s efforts at improving ecological conditions both in the river and along a vast swathe of the banks on either side.
Many Nanjing citizens have noticed the steady greenification of the Yangtze River banks over the past several years, changes that are the subject of a video released on local media; episode two of “Big River Pentium City Living Room” (大江奔腾城市会客厅).
The Nanjing Greening and Landscape Bureau takes wetland protection and finless porpoise protection as two of its key tasks, while the department has made afforestation on both sides of the Yangtze River another top priority.
As such, green belts with widths of 50-100 metres have been planted within 1 kilometre of the river, with a total area of over 650 hectares. The video, published by local media, reveals such an initiative has consolidated Nanjing’s position as top city in the province for green coverage.
In addition, our city’s green beltway of riverside scenery now stretches for some 60 kilometres on both banks of the Yangtze, while protection has now been afforded to more than 80 percent of the Yangtze River wetlands in Nanjing. The wetlands are a crucial environmental stopping-off point for migratory cranes.
All this in addition to the work done by the Nanjing Yangtze Finless Porpoise Provincial Nature Reserve. Known as “baiji” in Chinese, the porpoise was brought to the verge of extinction earlier in the 2010s.
Established in September of 2014, the Reserve has a total area of 86.92 square kilometres and a coastline of 44.8 kilometres. The Reserve carries out protection, scientific-research monitoring, popular-science propaganda, water-project supervision, water-ecological restoration and other work as it relates to the porpoise, in line with current environmental national policies.
As if in appreciation for all the efforts of late, in recent days many porpoises have been spotted playfully swimming on the surface of the river, some even jumping from the waters as if on cue for the cameras.
Environmentalists say the chances of spotting the Nanjing Yangtze River Finless Porpoise are now greater than ever, while most sightings take place in the waters around the Nanjing Number 3 Bridge.
The Yangtze River Finless Porpoise is the only freshwater subspecies of the finless-porpoise family. The species, only found in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, has been with us for 25 million years, give or take.
Nanjing is the only Chinese city where visitors can observe the wild Yangtze River Finless Porpoise in an urbanised area.
