Nature versus development

The Ministry of Environmental Protection has created a stir, because it proposes to shrink the Upper Yangtze National Nature Reserve for Rare and Endangered Fish by more than 1,400 hectares.

The reserve, which stretches from Yibin in Sichuan province to Chongqing, is the last place where several endangered and endemic species such as the Chinese paddlefish, Dabry's sturgeon and the Chinese suckerfish are found.

The integrity of the reserve has always been in peril. Now, that a panel of experts has agreed that a smaller conservation area would not threaten the aquatic habitat, it has to make room for a dam.