There are many rivers and lakes in China with complex and diverse habitats, which provide good living conditions and reproductive space for aquatic organisms, especially in the seven major river basins of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, the Pearl River, the Songhua River, the Huaihe River, the Haihe River and the Liaohe River. They are important water sources and aquatic biological treasures in China, and they maintain the survival of many rare and endangered species and important aquatic economic species in China. However, the decline of biodiversity and aquatic species resources have become a prominent problem affecting China's ecological security in recent years. Among them, illegal fishing (such as electric fishing) has brought serious challenges to aquatic ecology.
How to promote the protection of aquatic biodiversity across river basins? CBCGDF has always believed that people's protection is the key to success. In China, there are such a group of respectable and lovely volunteers who have made outstanding contributions to the protection of aquatic ecology. These good stories and voices from China will be shared with the world.
CBCGDF will dispatch representatives to Bangladesh to attend the NBS (Nature-Based Solutions) training conference in mid and late March 2019. NBS aims to protect biodiversity in a natural way and achieve socially sustainable development. As the CBCGDF "Anti-electric fishing Collaboration Center" has achieved remarkable achievement in this field, CBCGDF will share the cross-basin practice case of China - Anti-electric fishing, so as to exchange experience with participants. The details of the case as below:
Headquartered in Zigong, CBCGDF Anti-electric Fishing Collaboration Center was established in March 2017 under the initiative of Mr. Zhu Kai, aiming to protect indigenous fish species, aquatic animals and water resources by resisting illegal fishing. As aquatic animals are declining dramatically, we will do everything we can to protect wildlife in local waters and resist predatory fishing. The Anti-Electric Fishing Collaboration Center mainly deals with two aspects of the aquatic environment and social and economic development.
1.Cooperate with fishery authorities in combating illegal activities
More than 15,000 volunteers from the Anti-Electric Fishing Collaboration Center have assisted fishery authorities of more than 10 provinces in the Yangtze River Basin to crack nearly 2,300 cases of illegal electric fishing; more than 1730 joint law enforcement actions have been carried out with fishery authorities throughout the country, with more than 38,100 volunteers participating in the activities in the whole year; and more than 280,000 kilometers have been patrolled along rivers and lakes.
Over 7600 sets of electric fish equipment and 6800 illegal nets have been collected by relevant departments. According to incomplete statistics, the Anti-electric Fishing Collaboration Center has avoided the destruction of nearly 10 million kilograms of fish resources by illegal fishing in its two-year work. In 2018, the Anti-electric Fishing Collaboration Center cooperated with the fishery authorities to investigate more than 1200 electric fishing cases, accounting for 11% of the total number of electric fishing cases cracked in China. In all our workstation cities, electric fishing behavior has been effectively curbed, it’s declined 50% at least.
2. Widely publicity
In the process of cracking down on illegal electric fishing, the Anti-electric fishing Collaboration Center kept on promoting awareness of protecting fish, water resources, and sustainable utilization and development of fishery resources to the public via different approach include We-media. We have also gone into schools for knowledge education through the platform of CBCGDF and established the demonstration school of "Little Guards of the Good Fellows of the Green Wood" in Zigong, southwest China’s Sichuan Province. More than 2.1 million people have been affected in the Yangtze River Basin.
3. Deeply Investigation and obtain Achievements
Among them, the Anti-electric Fishing Collaboration Center is particularly prominent in assisting local fisheries authorities to crack the most influential cases of illegal electric fishing. It has helped the fisheries authorities to crack more than 10 major cases in one year.
For example 1). Bailizhou electric fishing Gang case in Yichang, Hubei Province, has become the largest case in Hubei Province in recent ten years.
2). Volunteers from Yueyang County, Hunan Province, assisted the largest illegal electric fishing case discovered at the intersection of Xiangyin County and Yiyang County on November 26. They also helped the fishery authorities of Xiangyin County arrest 7 electric fish boats and more than 3500 catches.
3). In December this year, the volunteers of the Anti-Electric Fishing Center, through secret visits and investigations, cooperated with the fishery authorities to find that there were cases of illegal sale of electric fishing machines in the Shaodong Industrial Products Market of Hunan Province, which made the relevant departments seize 22 illegal operators of electric fishing machines, worth more than one million yuan.
4. Advice and Policy Making to Promote the Process of Rule of Law
Because volunteers have been working at the front line of the anti-electric fishing for a long time and are familiar with the water conditions, the Anti-electric Fishing Collaboration Center has proposed many good pieces of advice to the government administrative departments.
The Anti-electric Fishing Collaboration Center publicly proposed to the NPC deputies to amend the relevant provisions of the Fisheries Law and the Criminal Law in January this year, which were adopted by four deputies, including Zhang Fengying, deputy of the NPC and submitted a bill to the 13th NPC Congress.
On August 30 of 2018, at the invitation of Jiang Bing, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Areas, the Anti-Electric Fishing Center participated in the preparatory work for the special action in combating electric fishing and participated in the discussion. The relevant measures on how to combat electric fishing proposed at the meeting, which highly appreciated and adopted by the leaders who participate in the meeting.
5. Protecting pandas in water and set up the Yangtze sturgeon patrol
In June, in order to better protect the Yangtze sturgeon, a national first-class protected animal of endemic species in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the Anti-electric Fishing Collaboration Center and several organizations jointly established the Yangtze sturgeon patrol, which has also made outstanding achievements. Up to now, more than 200 sturgeons have been rescued from the Yangtze River, effectively protecting the Yangtze sturgeon and its habitat.
6. Excellent achievements and written praise from the Ministry of Agriculture
On December 25, 2018, the Fisheries Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas issued a letter, commending the Anti-Electric Fishing Collaboration Center for its "heavy" work this year from three aspects: forefront action against illegal electric fishes, cooperating with the fisheries administration department on investigating and dealing with a large number of electric fishing cases, and putting forward rationalization proposals for the work of the Anti-Electric Fishing Center.
Original Chinese article
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4937/7782.html
By / Li Xue