China News Service, Changsha, March 31st: Question: Finless porpoises spring outing and migratory birds stay in Dongting Lake. What other goals are there for ecological management?
Author Fu Jingyi Zhong Zubiao
In March, the water of South Dongting Lake was rippling, and the Baisha Bridge was like an arch across the lake. For this water area, Zhu Xiaocai, a staff member of the Yuanjiang City Fishery Service Management Station in Hunan Province, carries out key inspections and monitoring every day, "in order to allow the finless porpoises to have fun and be safe in South Dongting Lake."
This year, six finless porpoises, known as "giant pandas in the water", followed the waves and cruising leisurely in this clean lake for the first time in more than 20 years. The finless porpoise group has started a "spring outing" mode and is currently covering all waters of Dongting Lake and the Xiangjiang River Basin.
In March this year, the finless porpoise, known as the "giant panda in the water," frequently visited the waters of South Dongting Lake for spring outings. Photo by Zhong Zubiao
Finless porpoises, which were originally only concentrated in East Dongting Lake, now frequently appear and play in places such as the Xiangjiang River and South Dongting Lake. Liao Fuchu, a researcher at the Hunan Provincial Institute of Fishery Sciences, said that this is due to the special management of Dongting Lake and the ten-year fishing ban policy in the Yangtze River. It provides more space and sufficient living resources for finless porpoise activities.
In recent years, Hunan has deeply promoted the coordinated management of the Yangtze River, Dongting Lake, and the "four waters" of Hunan, Zi, Yuan, and Li, made every effort to improve Dongting Lake's water security capabilities, and built an ecological barrier for Dongting Lake's water. The ecological environment continues to improve, turning "migratory birds" into "resident birds".
Chen Xin, director of the Duoganzhou Conservation and Management Station of the Nanxian Administration Bureau of the South Dongting Lake Nature Reserve, said that last summer, six "giant pandas among birds" pochards bred in the wetland and hatched 15 ducklings, all of which survived. The southernmost latitude breeding record for the Bleu-headed Pochard currently exists.
"The finless porpoise is back, there are more migratory birds, and Dongting Lake is becoming more and more beautiful." Shen Xiaoming, Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, said at this year's National Two Sessions that in recent years, Hunan has focused on environmental governance and harmony between man and nature in the ecological restoration of Dongting Lake. Symbiosis has achieved gratifying results.
Li Jianzhi, deputy secretary-general of the Hunan Wildlife Conservation Association, who has more than 20 years of experience in protecting birds, has a deep understanding of this. "Bird enthusiasts have grown exponentially in Dongting Lake, and local cultural tourism industries such as 'bird guides', B&Bs, and farmhouses are booming."
On March 11, rare migratory birds inhabited Swan Lake in Minglang Mountain, Yuanjiang City, Hunan Province. Photo by Zhong Zubiao
Yueyang, Hunan has held the Dongting Lake Bird Watching Festival for 12 consecutive years, attracting teams from more than 30 countries and regions around the world to participate; Yuanjiang has created 4 wetland bird watching and sightseeing boutique eco-tourism routes... "Dongting Bird Watching" is a close connection between people and nature. Link to promote the development of tourism in the entire area around Dongting Lake.
He Jihua, Vice Chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, suggested that Yueyang should be supported in building a new cultural tourism industry based on its business cards of "smiling finless porpoises, shadowy elk, migratory birds, and cute pandas" to continuously amplify tourism benefits.
Hunan hopes to use the Yueyang Dongting Lake Tourist Resort as a model to build a world-class tourist destination, carry out pilot projects on ecological product value realization mechanisms, and explore a path to realize the value of ecological products that is government-led, participated by businesses and all sectors of society, market-oriented, and sustainable.
Ecological construction triggers the "same-frequency resonance" of eco-tourism, further opens up the transformation channel from "lucid waters and lush mountains" to "golden mountains and silver mountains", continuously promotes green development, turns ecological products into essential resources that benefit the people, and works together with man and nature. Harmonious coexistence and modernization.
With the current changes in the relationship between rivers and lakes, the ecological management of Dongting Lake is still a long-term and systematic project. In recent years, the three provinces of Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River have systematically promoted basin-wide governance and improved the joint protection and management coordination mechanism to protect important lake and reservoir water networks such as the "Yangtze River's Twin Kidneys."
Hunan also proposes to use the Dongting Lake area as a key area for long-term support for the follow-up work of the Three Gorges, strengthen ecological protection in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, scientifically improve the relationship between rivers and lakes, improve Dongting Lake water security, revive the ecological environment of Dongting Lake, and jointly protect the clear water of the river. (over)