From the 1990s, the Yangtze River has become more hostile to the people living alongside due to environmental deterioration.
When the river faces serious flooding, it may cause drowning and destroy land because the water cannot be diverted to nearby wetland already occupied by houses and farmland.
Among the many effects of the deteriorating environment is the loss and degradation of spectacular wetland, which is mainly caused by human actions such as drainage, damming and tilling for crop production.
Realizing the suffering caused by flood disasters, the government has made great effort in protecting wetland as part of its strategy to improve the environment.
In 1998, the State Council defined a framework for ecological conservation in the middle reaches of the Yangtze area that focuses on wetland restoration and protection.
The wetland restoration plan requires farmers to move out of flood-prone areas where they have built homes and developed farmland, and restore the wetland they had occupied. After farmers move to higher ground, water returns and the wetland in the lower regions is restored.
Subsidized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the 50 university students will go to provinces and cities such as Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Jiangsu and Shanghai for a two-month-long wetland restoration and protection tour.
Students will work with farmers and offer them practical methods, including grassland husbandry, chicken, duck and fish breeding, and greenhouse planting so that farmers may seek new livelihoods.
"Our aim is to help improve the environment and protect wetland in the Yangtze River area through the efforts of both the students and farmers," said Ding Jing from the WWF China Programme Office.
The 50 students will be divided into 10 groups, each containing at least one student who is native to the area, so that students can better communicate with farmers and implement their instructions.
When the China Youth Daily and WWF first made public their project of wetland restoration, students' committees from some 30 universities across the nation applied by designing detailed plans on how to carry out the project.
(China Daily 07/05/2001)
