Conserving the critically endangered "river pig"

Poyang Lake--finless porpoise habitat

As I wrote previously, the Yangtze finless porpoise has been moved from Second Class to First Class Protection Status in China. In some ways, this is very good. It means that higher government offices will be responsible for the species' protection. It also means that the work carried out by citizens, environmental organizations, and research institutes has fortunately caught the government's attention and drawn it towards this charismatic and valuable animal.

However, the law does not in and of itself address the issues that are actually impacting the porpoise's population. It seems to focus on direct impacts, in particular poaching or killing for other reasons. Unfortunately, because the porpoise is at the top of its food chain, there are a multitude of direct and indirect factors that threaten its survival. By simply living in and along the Yangtze River, the porpoise continually comes face-to-face with the environmental externalities that accompany economic development. These include pollution, constant sand-dredging, irresponsible fishing practices, boat accidents, and dam-building. Each one of these problems will require a policy to address it along with the monetary and human resources needed to enforce new rules or laws. China has a record of passing laws quickly, but it also has problems with corruption, particularly with environmental regulations.

If officials decide to take control of the situation, they will probably relocate chemical plants rather than try to enforce upgrades. This is one of the actions that they have taken in other cases of extreme pollution problems. (Not my favorite solution, since it is just outsourcing pollution to another poor area or even another country, possibly. This also doesn't address non point-source pollution, which is significant in China.)

Constant sand-dredging, irresponsible fishing accidents, and dam-building are other impacts that are closely tied to economic development. Sand is used in making cement for construction purposes. Anyone who has visited China recently knows that the building is not going to stop any time soon... not with China's goals to urbanize its population. The dredging occurs on a 24-hour basis, disrupting fish beds and eggs in the sediment and leading to a decline in the porpoises' prey. This likely has an impact on the local fishermen as well, leading them to use increasingly extreme methods to keep their catches high for the market. For example, apparently Dongting Lake (one of the key habitats for the porpoise) is a maze of finely woven fishnets--a haven turned deathtrap for porpoises. At this lake, a few local activists--the Yueyang Finless Porpoise Protection Association--have been working to educate fisherman and even succeeded in getting the sand-dredging to stop during nighttime hours. According to them, their actions have led to a slight increase in the population of porpoises at that lake. If that is true, then education and compromises with economic interests might what we need to keep the Yangtze finless porpoise from going extinct.

A nation's waterways are critical economically. By cleaning them up and taking care of them, the governments could help to ensure economic prosperity in the long term while also benefiting people who depend on it for their livelihood. The fact that China has already lost the baiji and stands to lose another intelligent mammal serves as a warning that public health is also at risk. People are living next to those factories, drinking that water, and eating that fish. If the resources are not sufficient to maintain a population of more than 1000 finless porpoises, what does that mean for people down the road?