Coke calls for efforts to protect wild dolphins
Print Edition
THE TIAN-E-ZHOU Oxbow Nature Reserve in Hubei Province announced on the seventh International Freshwater Dolphin Day yesterday that the protection of the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise has achieved great progress with the number of the mammal set to increase quickly.
Under the leadership of Ministry of Agriculture, Hubei Province Fishery Bureau and along with the support of Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences as well as social organizations such as Coca-Cola and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the translocation conservation efforts to protect Yangtze finless porpoise are now paying off.
“After inspection of a total of 59 Yangtze finless porpoises recently collected from their relocated habitats, we found that 9 of them are pregnant and 11 of them are in the lactation period, suggesting a major progress in translocation conservation,” said researcher Wang Ding at the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Yangtze finless porpoises have been living in the Yangtze River for over 100,000 years and are often called “underwater pandas” because of their cuddly demeanor and also their scarcity. There are fewer Yangtze finless porpoises than giant pandas.
Zhang Jiantao, vice president of Coca-Cola Greater China and South Korea, said he remains upbeat about bringing efforts from all stakeholders and organizations to continue the water resources protection program as replenishing water is always part of Coca-Cola’s unwavering commitment and target.
“Water replenishment and ecological protection in the Yangtze River region is our focus and we believe under our joint efforts the water ecological environment would gradually improve and more species and population in the region would eventually benefit,” Zhang said.
In 2012, a survey showed that the living status of Yangtze finless porpoises has been endangered by pollution and destruction of water environment, and the porpoise population has almost been halved from 10 years ago with only 1,045 left. It has been listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a critical conservation status on the IUCN Red List just behind “Extinct” and “Extinct in the Wild.”
“Under the efforts of our collaborators including Coca-Cola, we have carried out a number of projects such as water source protection, ecological water replenishment, sustainable agriculture, as well as eco-tourism of the Tian-e-Zhou Old Course, and the success of this demonstration zone gave us great confidence in protection of Yangtze finless porpoises,” said Lei Gang, WWF China’s Yangtze River senior project director.
Coca-Cola also announced that it replenished 191.9 billion liters of clean water back to nature and communities worldwide in 2015, equaling 115 percent of the water used in its finished beverages in the past year.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
