Efforts to conserve Sanjiangyuan ecology paying rich dividends

Ecological conservation is becoming an increasingly important issue in the agenda of local governments, with Qinghai province making it its top priority. Known as China's "water tower", Qinghai's southern part is where the country's three major rivers — the Yellow River, the Yangtze River and the Lancang River — originate. The ecology in the areas where the three rivers originate is critical to the development of not only China but also a number of other countries, as the Lancang River zigzags all the way to Southeast Asia where it's called the Mekong River.

With global warming affecting the source areas of the rivers, damaging the grasslands, shrinking the lakes and threatening some animal species with extinction, the central government decided to take urgent corrective measures. It established the Sanjiangyuan Natural Reserve in 2000(sanjiangyuan means three rivers' source), and upgraded it to a State-level protection area in 2003. And in 2021, it elevated the 123,100-square-kilometer reserve — half the size of Great Britain — to the status of a national park.

According to a senior official of the park, the government has invested 30 billion yuan ($4.12 billion) for conserving the ecology in the Sanjiangyuan area since 2003.