When ecology becomes an economic engine

In the spring of 2026, several pods of wild finless porpoises — the "water pandas" known for their extreme sensitivity to water quality — were spotted swimming and playing in the Yangtze River near Yibin in Sichuan province.

Once rare visitors, these creatures have now become permanent residents of the Yangtze, serving as a living bio-indicator of the river's recovery.

This is a significant transformation from a decade ago, when the confluence near Yibin was a toxic mix of chemical effluents, illegal dredging, and silt-heavy waters.

Back then, fishermen grew poorer even as they overtaxed the river, and the city itself was trapped in the grim choice of "pollution for growth".

For years, the stubborn narrative has been that environmental fix-ups are a losing game. Conventional wisdom held that conservation was a one-way street of government spending and shuttered factories, and an enemy of economic progress.

But Yibin, the first major city along the Yangtze and a vital ecological gatekeeper, has spent the last decade dismantling that myth. When we stop viewing conservation as a "burden" to be carried, it becomes a region's most potent competitive edge and turns environmental health into economic capital.

As an industrial powerhouse on the upper Yangtze, Yibin's economy used to be defined by "the black and the white" — coal, chemicals, and heavy-duty liquor production. The riverbanks were crowded with energy-intensive plants, illegal piers, and noisy restaurant barges.

With industrial waste and raw sewage flowing straight into the current, the Yangtze's biodiversity hit rock bottom; at one point, the main stream was classified as "fishless". This was the old playbook of "pollute now, pay later" — a strategy that led to GDP spikes but left the city in an unsustainable deadlock.

When the Yangtze River Protection Law came into effect in 2020, Yibin led the charge with a challenging "inward-looking" cleanup. Illegal docks were dismantled, polluting plants were relocated to managed industrial parks, and a 10-year fishing ban was imposed.

It was a tough time, as industrial output dipped and thousands of fishermen worried about their livelihoods. These "growing pains" only fueled the skeptics who argued that green policies were merely a financial drain.

However, that view was shortsighted. True conservation lays the foundation for a more resilient economy.

Yibin didn't just protect the river for the sake of protection. It synchronized environmental repair with industrial evolution, ensuring that every yuan spent on the river eventually paid dividends to the city.

Yibin's success was rooted in its strategy of "value reconstruction". Instead of pitting the economy against the environment, the city started treating its natural assets as economic engines. The goal was to move past "handout-style" protection toward a self-sustaining model where the environment actually drives growth.

First, the city transformed its ecology into its most valuable asset. By cleaning the water and restoring the shorelines, Yibin achieved 100 percent "excellent" status for its monitored river sections in 2025. This paved the way for the successful natural breeding of the endangered Yangtze sturgeon, signaling a river truly coming back to life.

Second, the industrial engine went green. Yibin replaced its old, polluting industries with what it calls "the blue and the green" — digital tech and clean energy. By positioning itself as "China's power battery capital", it attracted a massive cluster of cutting-edge firms.

At the same time, the city's scenic beauty — from the bamboo forests to the restored wetlands — fueled the growth of the high-end eco-tourism and wellness industry that simply couldn't exist in a polluted city.

Most importantly, the locals became the biggest winners. When the fishing nets were pulled in for the last time, Yibin didn't abandon its fishermen. The city provided retraining, turning former river-harvesters into river-protectors.

Today, those same men and women work as ecological rangers, run riverside guesthouses, or thrive in green agriculture by growing organic tea and bamboo. Many are now earning significantly more than they ever did from a depleted fish stock.

Yibin today is a city transformed — green, vibrant, and alive. The sight of porpoises in the waves and flourishing industries on the riverbank isn't a result of giving up on growth; it's the result of finding the sweet spot where development and nature sustain each other.

Across China, more cities are waking up to this reality. Yibin's journey shows that environmental protection isn't a "losing trade" — it's the smartest investment a city can make.

It is not an obstacle to growth but a foundation for long-term prosperity. When we stop looking at the next quarter and start looking at the next generation, we find that every effort to protect the Earth has its own return.

This is the path to a modern China where the beauty of the landscape and the wealth of the people are one and the same.

Huang Huan is a professor at the Business School of Chengdu University of Technology and a research fellow at the Yangtze River Economic Zone Research Institution of Renmin University of China; An Bowen is a research fellow at the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era Research Center in Fujian province.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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