Today only 8 percent of the upper reaches of the Yangtze river is covered with forest, when it was almost 50 percent before. Because of excessive logging, the total volume of eroded soil in the area now exceeds 1.5 billion cubic meters each year in the upstream of the Three Gorges dam projects. Industrial and agricultural encroachment has changed the landscape. Dongting lake, by the Yangtze, used to have an area of 4,000 square km but this has shrunk to 2,600 sq km. China now seeks to change economic structures, with emphasis on environmental protection along the Yangtze and rivers in the northwest.
Prevention is always better than cure.
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