Meet the man on a mission to save the Yangtze River from overfishing
- With imagination, dedication and money a Chinese businessman is working to restore the waterway of his childhood
- Harmful fishing methods have caused a dramatic drop in stocks since the 1990s
A Chinese businessman’s childhood memories of fishing on one of the world’s great rivers are behind his efforts 40 years later to restore it to environmental health.
Qu Tianwen grew up in a village on the banks of the Jinsha (Yangtze) River in Shangri-La, Yunnan province, southwest China, and remembers fishing with his parents and catching 5kg (11lbs) of fish a day.
But fish stocks in the river, once home to more than a dozen species, dropped dramatically in the 1990s when local fishermen started using explosives or electric currents to speed up their catch.
Qu, whose business interests include a cement factory and vineyard, set up an environmental group four years ago to help reverse the devastation.
Since founding the Society for Shangri-La Native Fish Restoration and Protection, Qu has donated at least 1 million yuan (US$148,000) – half his business profits – a year to the group in a bid to restore the river to something like the one he remembers as a child.