Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Fishing ban · China · 2020–2030

Yangtze ten-year fishing ban

Nature's voice · report
My river dolphin, the baiji, was declared functionally extinct in 2007.
Did nature suffer? Yes. Harm is on record.
Recorded
  • My wild fish catch fell from about 430,000 tonnes in 1954 to under 100,000 tonnes after 2011.
  • About 70% of the decline of my river's fish is attributed to habitat loss — dams, land reclamation and sand mining — and about 30% to fishing. PubMed Central
  • My Chinese sturgeon have not spawned naturally for eight years.
What the record lacks: 6 none on record · 1 disputed See the gaps

About 231,000 fishers put down their nets. Studies attribute about 70% of the river's fish loss to habitat destruction, mostly dams, sand mining and land reclamation.

70: 30Fish loss: habitat vs fishing
Jin et al., attribution study.
What?
China banned fishing on the Yangtze for ten years, from 2020 in protected areas and from 2021 on the main river; about 231,000 fishers and 111,000 boats left the river. Sixth Tone
Where?
The Yangtze main stem and major tributaries, and 332 protected areas across the basin, including Poyang and Dongting lakes. China Daily
When?
Baiji not found in 2006 survey; ban in protected areas from 1 January 2020; on the main river from 1 January 2021; runs to 2030. China Daily
Who?
Gained
  • China Yangtze Power (operator of six main-stem dams) — Net profit rose from 26.3bn yuan in 2020 to 34.5bn yuan in 2025; the dams were not part of the ban. Stock Analysis
  • Aquaculture in the Yangtze provinces — Hubei's aquaculture output was worth 157.7bn yuan in 2022, about 5.8 times the total ban compensation (estimate).
Lost
  • Fishers — About 231,000 stopped fishing. One reported fisher's income fell from 50,000–80,000 yuan to about 24,000 a year as a patrol warden. Sixth Tone
Harmed
  • Baiji, the Yangtze river dolphin — Declared functionally extinct in 2007; fishing nets were its main recorded cause of death.
  • The river's wild fish — Wild catch fell from about 430,000 tonnes in 1954 to under 100,000 tonnes after 2011.
  • Chinese sturgeon — No natural spawning for eight years; more than 970,000 juveniles released in 2025.
Why?
Research attributes about 70% of the river's fish decline to habitat loss — dams, land reclamation, sand mining — and about 30% to fishing. PubMed Central
How?
Fishing was stopped and boats handed in; governments set aside 27bn yuan for compensation and pension insurance; fisheries enforcement staff rose to 10,400. gov.cn
In proportion Before the ban, the river's wild catch was 0.32% of China's freshwater fish output.
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

China banned fishing on the Yangtze in two steps: from 1 January 2020 in 332 protected areas of the basin, and from 1 January 2021 on the main stem and major tributaries. The ban runs for ten years.

About 231,000 fishers and 111,000 boats came under the ban. Central and local governments set aside 27 billion yuan by the end of 2022 for compensation and pension insurance.

Research attributes about 70% of the river's fish decline to habitat loss — dams, land reclamation and sand mining — and about 30% to fishing.

The river's dolphin, the baiji, was not found in a 2006 survey and was declared functionally extinct in 2007. Fishing nets were its main recorded cause of death. The ban came fourteen years later.

China Yangtze Power, which runs six large dams on the river including Three Gorges, raised net profit from 26.3 billion yuan in 2020 to 34.5 billion yuan in 2025. Cargo handled at main-stem ports passed 4.2 billion tonnes in 2025.

  1. 1954Wild catch about 430,000 tonnes
  2. 2006Baiji not found in survey; declared functionally extinct (2007)
  3. 2011Wild catch below 100,000 tonnes
  4. 2020Ban begins in 332 protected areas
  5. 2021Ban extends to main stem and major tributaries
  6. 2025Yangtze finless porpoise count 1,426; dam power output 307 TWh
  7. 2030Ten-year ban period ends

What was said

Claims, in the words of those who made them.

“Fishers able and willing to work, all placed in jobs.”

Official Chinese reporting (People's Daily; gov.cn) · 2023–2025 · gov.cn

“China starts 10-year fishing ban on Yangtze River.”

Where accounts differ

Each party's account, side by side, with its source. The record does not settle these points; it shows them.

Were the fishers' livelihoods replaced?
Government and regulators
Official Chinese reporting

“Fishers able and willing to work, all placed in jobs.”

gov.cn
Press and investigations
Press report

One fisher's income fell from 50,000–80,000 yuan a year to about 24,000 as a patrol warden.

Researchers
National study

None on record measures how much lost income the compensation replaced.

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

  • A ten-year rest for the river
  • 231,000 fishers compensated and retrained
  • Porpoise numbers rising
  • Fish biomass up

Recorded

  • About 70% of fish loss attributed to habitat, about 30% to fishing
  • The dams keep running; dam operator profit up about 3× from 2015 to 2025
  • The baiji was gone 14 years before the ban
  • One reported fisher: from 50–80,000 yuan a year to about 24,000 as a patrol warden

Who gained

Money that reached nature, beside money that stayed elsewhere.

Reached nature or the ground

≈ ¥27bn
Compensation to fishers; no habitat-restoration budget is attached to the ban.
Compensation and pensions for fishers (to end-2022)¥27bn
Window: 2020–2022
Paid to people leaving the river, not to habitat.

Gained elsewhere

Not totalled
China Yangtze Power net profit, 2025¥34.5bn
Window: 2025
Hubei aquaculture output value, 2022¥157.7bn
Window: 2022
About 5.8× the total ban compensation.
Currency: CNY · Window: Mixed — see each line. Figures cover different periods and are not compared as a ratio. * Estimate built from cited figures.

In court and with insurers

Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

Lawsuits and rulings

No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

Insurers

No insurer decision on record.

What nature saw

Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.

Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.

Finless porpoise (official count)
1,012 → 1,426
2017 → 2025
Main-stem fish biomass
+209%
2018–2023 (Science, 2026); small species −18%; stocking may contribute
Chinese sturgeon
No natural spawning
Eight years; 970,000+ juveniles released in 2025

What we don't know

Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
No court caseKey earnings undisclosed

Court

Accounts

  • Disputed Were the fishers' livelihoods replaced?
  • None on record National study: None on record measures how much lost income the compensation replaced.

Record

  • None on record No national study measures how much of fishers' lost income the compensation replaced.
  • None on record The number of fishers "able and willing to work" fell from 160,000 (2022) to 142,000 (2025); no reason was given.
  • None on record No official figure for total legal and illegal sand extraction on the river.
  • None on record No current official count of dams in the basin.

Did the harm stop?

Fishing stopped in 2020–21. Habitat loss, named as the larger cause, was not part of the ban.

Who paid?

Fishers, many moving to lower incomes; the baiji, before any ban existed.

Sources

Voices on record: ✓ Company or project✓ Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society✓ Researchers

Company or project

Government and regulators

Press and investigations

  3. Poyang Lake sand mining
    Sixth Tone · 2017

Researchers

  1. Fish biomass recovery in the Yangtze (Science, 2026)
    Chinese Academy of Sciences · 2026-02-13

Connected cases

Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
Terms used on this page

Science and environment

Baiji
The Yangtze river dolphin, a freshwater dolphin found only in the Yangtze.
Biomass, root-to-shoot ratio, carbon fraction
Biomass is the dry weight of living plants per hectare. The root-to-shoot ratio adds the weight of roots. The carbon fraction is the share of that weight that is carbon, about 47% in tropical forests.
Finless porpoise
The Yangtze finless porpoise, a small toothed whale living in the river and its lakes.
Functionally extinct
A species whose remaining individuals, if any, are too few to sustain the population.
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