In order to get a first hand information of the conservation status of the ecological environment and aquatic life in the upper reaches of Yangtze River, the 2013 Joint Research Mission of the Upper Reaches of Yangtze River, launched by the Office of Yangtze Fishery Resources Commission of Ministry of Agriculture and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), formally started on June 5 in Shanghai.  

This is the first scientific investigation ever conducted in the headwaters area and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The investigation will be carried out in three fields, namely wetland ecosystems, aquatic biodiversity and environmental flow. As an expert in aquatic biodiversity, Prof. Chen Yifeng from Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHB) will participate in this investigation mission and serve as the leader of the expert panel.  

This research mission will set out in Yushu County, Qinghai Province on June 9. The whole journey, covering about 4,000 kilometers, will last for 12 days. The research team will conduct comprehensive investigation on the geology and geomorphology, wetland ecosystem, aquatic biodiversity, conservation, exploration and utilization of water resources, soil loss and water shortage along the Jinsha River (westernmost of the major headwater streams of the Yangtze River) and Chishui River (a branch of the Yangtze River that originates in Yunnan and flows through Sichuan and Guizhou).  

An on-site diagnosis of the major threats that the three fields, i.e. wetlands, aquatic life, environmental flow, will have to face will be performed and the correlation of the three fields will be evaluated. The major threats might have short or mid-long term effects on the health of the Yangtze River basin. Based on the investigation results, the research team will attempt to put forth suggestions and countermeasures in fields such as adaptation to climate change, ecological compensation, ecological risks evaluation, pre-warning and contingency plans.  

Recent years, due to climate changes and human activities, hydrology, aquatic biodiversity and wetland ecosystems in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are facing huge threats. As China’s biggest river by discharge volume, Yangtze River’s volume of flow during 2007 and 2009 is respectively 6.9%, 11.7% and 11.5% less than that in the average years.  

This May, Chongqing section of the Yangtze River experienced a rarely seen dry season. In the same time, fishery resources in the Yangtze River decreased at a rapid speed. The number of the “four major domestic carps” fingerlings declined from over 30 billion individuals in the 1950s to less than 100 million individuals at present; the number of endangered Yangtze finless porpoises nosedived to about 1,000; the population of Yangtze finless porpoises found in the main stream of the Yangtze River decreased at a rate of 13.73%.