The fair management of resources also requires respect and honor for nature and one another. By Julie Peller Ph.D.

Green Junction

The Yangtze in China is known as the country’s “Mother River.” It is the longest river in China and the third longest in the world, behind only the Nile and the Amazon. Over the past several decades, China’s rapid economic growth, which made it the second-largest economy in the world, was accompanied by marked environmental and ecological degradation, including in the Yangtze River. It experienced a biodiversity crisis, the loss of fish and other aquatic life due to industrialization along the river, pollution, and overfishing. To address the crisis, the government put an extreme policy in place in 2021, a basin-wide commercial fishing ban, in hopes of restoring water quality and the fishing industry.

Early assessments of the 10-year ban were recently done by an international team of researchers. They compared biomass and biodiversity across 57 sections of the river and found that fish populations had doubled since the legislation was enacted five years ago. The ban has also improved water quality and reduced underwater noise from boat propellers. Interestingly, the researchers highlighted the ongoing threat of microplastics in the water, which affects water quality and biodiversity.

The ban on fishing distressed the livelihood of 230,000 fishermen who depended on the river; they were resettled. According to one of the analysts, “the biggest take home is let’s do a better job of managing our freshwater rivers so we never have to consider full fishing bans as the medicine.” Protecting fresh waters and other natural resources can be done in the context of a thriving economy. The field of Environmental Economics focuses on the management and allocation of natural resources to ensure long-term health and sustainability. Ecosystem services (gifts of nature), such as clean, fresh water, should be assigned a monetary value to ensure protection and preservation, according to environmental economics. The fair management of resources also requires respect and honor for nature and one another.

Julie Peller, Ph.D., is an environmental chemist (Professor of Chemistry at Valparaiso University). She has been writing a weekly column, The Green Junction, for the past seven years and is helping to move the call of Laudato Si to action. Her research interests include advanced oxidation for aqueous solutions, water quality analyses, emerging contaminants, air quality analyses, challenges along the Lake Michigan shoreline (such as Cladophora, water, and sediment contaminants), and student and citizen participation in environmental work.