Local volunteers commited to keep the Yangtze clean
2024-03-02 17:03:54
By Tan Maolin, Yichang International Communication Studio
Along the bank of the Yangtze River in Yichang, groups of volunteers can be seen year-round picking up garbage or patrolling for the protection of finless porpoises. In their own way, they guard the Yangtze River.
Along the bank of the Yangtze River in Yichang, groups of volunteers can be seen year-round picking up garbage or patrolling for the protection of finless porpoises. In their own way, they guard the Yangtze River.
Partial group photo of Three Gorges Ant Workers
Around 8 am on February 19, volunteers from the Three Gorges Ant Workers were seen picking up garbage on the riverbank in Yichang’s Binjiang Park.
Established in 2015, Three Gorges Ant Workers is dedicated to ecological and environmental protection service activities, such as keeping the Yangtze River clean and organizing knowledge promotion for environmental protection. Up to now, more than 1,184 tons of trash has been removed from the river thanks to the work of the volunteers.
The non-profit organization Yichang Rice Straw Circle was established in April 2017, thanks to the efforts of volunteer Liu Min.
In July 2018, Straw Circle launched a project with the local fishery administration to protect the Yangtze finless porpoise, an endangered species. Volunteers work through all weather conditions, inspecting an area within 60 kilometers from the Gezhouba Dam on the Yangtze River, and assist in cracking down on illegal fishing, electric fishing and poisonous fishing. Over the past five years, the project has had about 200 core volunteers, patrolling an accumulative length of more than 230,000 kilometers and assisting in investigating and penalizing illegal fishing more than 10,000 times.
Besides volunteer groups, there are also teams taking up protecting the Yangtze River as their full-time job.
This is the 17th year that Zhou Gonghu and his team have been working on the Yangtze River. In April 2006, Zhou bought a boat with friends and started a garbage collection business. More than a dozen fishermen in his village became members of the first floating-garbage cleaning team in the Three Gorges Reservoir area.
Over the years, the team has salvaged more than 45,000 tons of floating debris along a span of 410 kilometers of the Yangtze River.
Established in 2015, Three Gorges Ant Workers is dedicated to ecological and environmental protection service activities, such as keeping the Yangtze River clean and organizing knowledge promotion for environmental protection. Up to now, more than 1,184 tons of trash has been removed from the river thanks to the work of the volunteers.
The non-profit organization Yichang Rice Straw Circle was established in April 2017, thanks to the efforts of volunteer Liu Min.
In July 2018, Straw Circle launched a project with the local fishery administration to protect the Yangtze finless porpoise, an endangered species. Volunteers work through all weather conditions, inspecting an area within 60 kilometers from the Gezhouba Dam on the Yangtze River, and assist in cracking down on illegal fishing, electric fishing and poisonous fishing. Over the past five years, the project has had about 200 core volunteers, patrolling an accumulative length of more than 230,000 kilometers and assisting in investigating and penalizing illegal fishing more than 10,000 times.
Besides volunteer groups, there are also teams taking up protecting the Yangtze River as their full-time job.
This is the 17th year that Zhou Gonghu and his team have been working on the Yangtze River. In April 2006, Zhou bought a boat with friends and started a garbage collection business. More than a dozen fishermen in his village became members of the first floating-garbage cleaning team in the Three Gorges Reservoir area.
Over the years, the team has salvaged more than 45,000 tons of floating debris along a span of 410 kilometers of the Yangtze River.
Zhou Gonghu is cleaning up the floating objects in the Yangtze River.
