我十分担心，
在2006年，我们组织了来自七个不同国家的专家，对长江和鄱阳湖、洞庭湖这两个大湖展开考察。我们当时已经知道长江里的白鱀豚数量非常少了，因此非常担忧它的未来。而此次考察的主要目的是寻找最后的白鱀豚。
但不幸的是，我们没能成功，一头白鱀豚都没发现。所以在次年，就是2007年，我们发表了一篇论文，宣告白鱀豚可能已经灭绝或者说功能性灭绝。这无疑是一场悲剧，因为白鱀豚是仅存于长江的水生哺乳动物，如果在长江中消失，就无法在世界其他地方找到踪迹。我们必须从白鱀豚的灭绝中汲取教训，从那以后，我们把大部分精力投入到长江另一种鲸豚类——江豚的保护工作当中。
长江有点特殊，长江里至少曾有两种鲸豚类。长江江豚作为鲸豚类动物，同样面临着白鱀豚所遭遇的各类威胁，因此它们的数量也一直在持续减少。在20世纪90年代初，数量大约有3600头；但到了2012年，只剩下大约1000头。因此，世界自然保护联盟将长江江豚列为极度濒危物种，这一濒危等级仅次于野外灭绝。
这一次，我们绝不能让江豚重蹈白鱀豚的覆辙。
给江豚找新家
那我们是怎么做的？首先，我们提出了三项保护措施，即就地保护、迁地保护和人工繁育。
鲸豚类的迁地保护以前从没有人尝试过。事实上，我面临着来自国际科学界的很多质疑。他们说：“王，你不能这么做，迁地保护这根本做不到。”但鉴于长江的复杂情况，特别是人类活动一直在快速扩张，我十分担心，也许有一天，长江江豚会像白鱀豚一样无法在长江中生存下去，这一天或许很快就会来临。所以我想着，我们必须把一部分江豚安置到某个适宜的地方，让它们能更安全地存活。至少，我们可以保住长江江豚种群的火种，并期盼有一天它们能够重回长江干流。
至于人工繁育，我们并不指望人工繁育能够拯救鲸豚类物种，因为这确实难以做到。但对于我们研究人员来说，圈养一小群江豚，为我们提供了很好的机会去研究这个物种，更深入地了解它们，从而帮助我们开展野外保护工作。此外，我们可以借助这个设施提高公众的保护意识，促使他们给予我们的保护工作更多支持。
那么，什么是自然迁地保护？我们首先选择了一个牛轭湖，名叫天鹅洲故道。所谓“牛轭湖”，就是它以前是长江的一部分。就拿天鹅洲故道来说，长江原来是几字形流淌的，但后来截弯取直，留下的这部分就形成了牛轭湖。所以说，牛轭湖过去属于长江，它们的生态环境条件与长江干流十分相似。
我们将这个区域作为首要的重点保护区，并从长江干流捕获了一些动物，将它们迁移到这里。早在1992年，第一批长江江豚就被迁移到了这个区域。事实证明，这种动物在此不仅能生存，还能成功地自然繁殖。它们自由自在地生活着，我们既不需要接触它们，也不需要喂它们，它们是真正的野生动物。这里给大家展示一张照片，当时的我比现在年轻许多，还有一些头发。
从这张图上可以看出，江豚的数量一直在增加，2021年已经达到了约100头，所以这次迁地保护是非常成功的。
有了这次成功的经验后，我们又挑选了另一个牛轭湖。实际上，这个牛轭湖比天鹅洲故道大得多，它名叫何王庙/集成故道，长约33千米，宽约在1到2千米之间，并且它的一端至今仍与长江干流相连通，所以它的水质很好，鱼类资源丰富。
2015年，我们引入了第一批江豚，之后我们又引入了更多的江豚。到了第二年就是2016年，我们在这个牛轭湖中就发现了一些新生江豚。
一共有20只江豚被引入这个故道，加上2016年开始出现的新生幼崽，目前这里的江豚总数已接近40只。
这张照片拍摄于2019年。前面我提到过，当我们第一次提出对长江江豚采取迁地保护措施的时候，没有人同意我的想法，而且我面临了相当多的质疑。但后来他们了解到我们的一些进展，对此非常好奇，就来请求我：“王先生，您能邀请我们去看看你们的保护区吗？”所以我们在2019年举办了一次会议，30多位外国专家来参观我们的江豚保护区。不知怎么的，江豚似乎知道有外国友人来这里看我们，它们就一直围着船游来游去，所以大家都非常开心。
目前，我们设立了三个自然和一个半自然的迁地保护区。长江江豚的迁地种群建立起来了，一共有约160头，而且每年都有超过15头长江江豚出生。这是全球范围内对鲸类动物开展迁地保护并取得成功的唯一范例。
正如2017年国际捕鲸委员会科学委员会年度报告所述：“事实证明长江江豚的迁地保护是有效的，祝贺中国政府、王丁教授和他的团队取得的进展。”最终，我们的努力得到了科学界的认可。
接下来，我要稍微讲讲人工繁育。上边这只江豚名叫“淘淘”，它是2005年在人工饲养条件下出生的。中间这只江豚E波出生于2018年。而下边这只江豚汉宝诞生于2020年，它是淘淘的儿子。
淘淘其实有两个儿子和一个女儿，它的女儿小久久在出生的时候，我们做了线上直播。我简直不敢相信，有2.2亿人次在线观看了这次直播，真是难以置信！即使是在人口数量庞大的中国，竟然同时有这么多人关注一只动物的诞生，2.2亿，你能相信吗？小久久现在非常健康，也非常受人喜爱。
守护江豚就要守护长江
已完成：50% //////////
所以，我们的保护工作算是取得了积极的进展，但我们真的能保护江豚免于灭绝吗？
这实际上是一个大问题。最终我们还是必须保护长江，才能保护长江江豚，这就是我们正在做的事情。
2016年的《长江经济带发展规划纲要》提出：坚持生态优先、绿色发展，统筹实施大保护，避免大开发。这是中国中央政府制定的政策。正如你们所知，中国政府如果想做一件事，就一定会做成。
从2020年1月1日起，我们保护区首先实施了禁渔令。从2021年1月1日起，在长江流域重点水域，即包括长江干流、部分重要支流和部分湖泊的整个长江范围内，实施了为期10年的禁渔期。11.1万艘渔船、23.1万名渔民全面禁止捕捞。当然，政府必须提供一些补助，帮助渔民找到其他养家糊口的方式，这是一大笔钱。
2021年3月1日，《中华人民共和国长江保护法》正式施行。在江豚保护上，我们已经在长江干流和洞庭湖及鄱阳湖建立了8个自然保护区，可以说，长江的环境好不好，江豚说了算。为什么这么说？因为长江江豚位于食物链的顶端，如果长江江豚不行了，说明长江的生态系统也不行了。
我很高兴与大家分享这些好消息。过去，长江江豚的种群数量一直在快速减少，但是，在2022年的上一次调查中，长江江豚的自然种群数量停止下降了，而且，还出现了历史上的首次增长，与2017年相比增加了23%。
我们必须守护生物圈的未来
我们并非只关注长江江豚，甚至也不是只关注长江。我们必须看清大局，必须找到与大自然、与环境、与地球共存的方法。
于是，人与生物圈（MAB）计划应运而生。自1973年起，中国就加入了MAB计划，我们建立了中国生物圈保护区网络，这是世界上最大的人与生物圈计划国家网络。保护区数量从1993年的45处增加到今天的200处，其中34处已成为联合国教科文组织人与生物圈保护区。所有长江江豚保护区都加入了这个网络。
那么，我们从中国的人与生物圈实践中可以学到什么呢？
在生物圈里，人类是许多环境和生态问题的根源，但人类也可以成为解决问题或防止问题发生的主导力量。
没有什么是容易的，但如果我们牢记使命、不忘初心，就可以充分发挥创造力，有所作为。
在宇宙中，地球生物圈也许是唯一的。为了我们人类永续的未来，需要与生物圈和谐共生、相携而行。
这是在鄱阳湖拍摄的照片。现在，我们可以这么说，我们比以往任何时候都更有信心保护好长江最美的微笑。
最后，第五届世界生物圈保护区大会，将于2025年在中国杭州举行，期待大家相聚杭州！
谢谢！
A Conservation Story for a Small Dolphin and its Big River
Dear friends, thank you for coming to join this side event. This morning we had, you know, very intensive discussions and kind of difficult meeting. So I guess everybody here is kind of tired. And in China, we Chinese have somea custom of taking a little nap during the noon time. So right now I kind of sleepy. But I hope my story I'm going to tell you is interesting and exciting enough to make you wake up. The story I'm going to tell you is called “A Conservation Story for a Small Dolphin and its Big River”.
Back in 2006, we organized experts from seven different countries to carry out a survey in the Yangtze river and two big lakes, Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake. The main purpose of this survey is to try to find the last Baiji . Baiji is the Chinese name of the Chinese Yangtze river dolphin.
Because we know, there were very few Chinese river dolphin left in the river, we are very much concerned about its future. So actually I organized experts from seven countries to carry out so called international survey to try to find the last Baiji.
But unfortunately, we failed. Not a single Baiji was sighted for sure. So next year, in 2007, we published a paper declaring Baiji is likely extinct or functionally extinct. This is a very big tragedy, because Baiji is an aquatic mammal only survived in the Yangtze river. If it's gone in the Yangtze river, you cannot find them anywhere else in the world. So we have to learn some lessons from the extinction of Baiji.
Since then, we have put much of our effort into the conservation work of another cetacean species in the Yangtze river.
So Yangtze river is kind of special，weused to have at least two cetacean species in the Yangtze river. But just like the Baiji, the Yangtze finless porpoise, as a cetacean species, also faces all kinds of threats faced by the Baiji . So its number had also been decreasing. For example, back in early 1990s, there were like 3600 individuals, but in 2012, only about 1000 left. So the IUCN list Yangtze finless porpoise as critically endangered, which is one step close to extinct in the wild.
So again, we must prevent the tragedy from happening again to the Yangtze finless porpoise. So what we have been doing?
First of all, we proposed so called three-measure conservation: in situ conservation, ex situ conservation and also captive breeding. Especially, when you are talking about ex situ conservation for cetacean species, nobody has done that before.
Actually I was facing quite a lot of criticism from international scientific society. Wang, you cannot do that. You cannot do ex situ conservation on cetacean species, there is no way to do that. But for me, because a lot of situations in the Yangtze river, especially human activity had been expanding very fast. I was worried, maybe there was some day, this day will be coming soon, the Yangtze finless porpoise cannot survive just like Baiji in the stream of the Yangtze river.
So what I was thinking, We had to put some of them into some area. It's safer for them to survive there. At least, we can preserve the seed population of this species and hopefully someday they can go back to the mainstream of Yangtze river. So we carried out a measure called ex situ conservation. I'm going to talk about this a little bit more.
The third measure is captive breeding. We are not expecting captive breeding can save a cetacean species. There is no way to do that. But for us, as a researcher, to have a small population captivity, it provides very good chance for us to do some research on them, to learn more about this animal species, then to help our work in the wild. And also, we can use this facility to raise some awareness of the public to try to encourage them to give more support to our conservation work.
So what is natural ex situ conservation measure? We first chose an oxbow named Tian-e-zhou oxbow. Oxbow means used to be a part of the Yangtze river. For example, for this Tian-e-zhou oxbow, the Yangtze river used to be running like this way, but because of the current was very strong, the Yangtze river is now running like this way, and this part is leftover as an oxbow. So this oxbow used to be a part of the Yangtze river. So its ecological and environmental conditions are very much similar to the mainstream of Yangtze river.
So we first chose this area which is our essential conservation area, and we captured some animals from the mainstream of the Yangtze river to move them into this area. And back in 1990, the first group of the Yangtze finless porpoise was moved into this area. And it turned out the animals not only survived but also reproduced naturally and successfully in the area. And they are free ranging animals. We don't need to touch them. We don't need to feed them. They are really free ranging wild animals. So this is a very successful effort. here is a picture from that time I was much younger than I am right now. I still have some hair anyway. We moved some animals into this area.
And as you can see from this figure, the population size number of the animals has been increasing, up to year 2021, it reached about 100. So this ex situ conservation is very much successful.
Because of the successful experience, we chose another oxbow, actually this oxbow is much bigger than Tian-e-zhou oxbow. It's called Hewang Temple/Jicheng oxbow. It's about 33 kilometers long, about 1-2 kilometers wide, and one end is still connected with the mainstream of Yangtze river. So the water quality is really good, and fish resource is really rich. So in 2015, we moved in the first group of the finless porpoise, and since then we introduced more. And next year, 2016, we see some newborns in this oxbow.
So a total 20 individuals were introduced to this oxbow. And since 2016, newborns appearand the current number is close to 40.And this picture was taken in 2019. Because, as I mentioned at that time,when we first proposed ex situ conservation measurefor the Yangtze finless porpoise,nobody agreed with me,and I faced quite a lot of criticism.But anyway,later on they learned something about this,and they got very much curious about this.So they asked me,Wang, can you invite us to go to your city, to your area to take a look of your reserve?So we had a meeting in 2019. More than 30 experts from some other countries visited this reserve.Everybody was happy.I don't know why,the finless porpoise, they just got to know somehow,there are some foreigners here to see us,they just keep moving around the boat.So everybody was very much happy about this.
So right now we have three natural and one semi-natural ex situ reserves. Insured population has been established. There are about 160 finless porpoise in total with more than 15 born each year. It is the only successful example of ex suit conservation of a cetacean species in the world. As IWC scientific committee report in 2017, it says, the program for translocating finless porpoise appears to be effective, and commends the Chinese government, Prof. Wang Ding and his colleagues for the progress they have made in this regard. So finally our efforts, you know, are recognized by the scientific society.
I'm going to talk a little bit about capital breeding. And this animal is called Taotao in Chinese. He was born in our captivity back in 2005. This animal, Ebo, was born in 2018. And Hanbao, born in 2020, is the son of Taotao. Taotao actually now have two sons and one daughter. His daughter was just born one month ago. She's very healthy. We love this animal.
You can see actually we did so called live-broadcasting online. I cannot believe that, this number is huge, 220 million people watched this broadcast online. It's unbelievable. Even the Chinese, we have a big population size in China, but this number at the same time, so many people watch the birth of this animal, 220 million, can you believe that?
So our conservation efforts have worked positively, but can we really protect the Yangtze finless porpoise from extinction?
It's a big question actually. Even we have been making some progress, but ultimately, we have to protect the Yangtze river to protect the Yangtze finless porpoise. So that's what we are doing right now.
Back in 2016, the Guideline for the Development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt stated: Adhere to ecological priority and green development, jointly implement large-scale protection and avoid large-scale development. This is the policy set up by the central government. As you know Chinese government is a very strong government. If they want to do something, they will do that successfully.
Starting from January 1st of 2020, our reserve first banned the fishery. And starting from 1st of January of 2021, a 10-year fishing ban was implemented in the key waters of the Yangtze river basin, which means the whole Yangtze river, the mainstream of the Yangtze river, and some important tributaries and some lakes. 111000 fishing boats and 231000 fishermen were fully withdrawal from fishing. But of course, the government had to provide some funding and help fishermen to find another way to support their family. It's a big money.
And also on 1st March, 2021, "The Yangtze River Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" came into effect. And in terms of conservation of finless porpoise, we have already established 8 natural reserves in the mainstream of the Yangtze river, and also two big lakes, one is called Dongting lake, another one is called Poyang lake.
And also as you can say, the Yangtze river’s environment is a good or not, the finless porpoise has the final say. Why we say that? Because the Yangtze finless porpoise sits on the top of the food chain. If the Yangtze finless porpoise is not doing well, which means the ecosystem of the Yangtze river is not doing well. So that's why the Yangtze finless porpoise has the final say to talk about the Yangtze river’s environment is good or not.
I'm very happy to share these good news with you. As I mentioned, the population size of the Yangtze finless porpoise had been decreasing very rapidly, but during the last survey back in 2022, the natural population of Yangtze finless porpoise stopped falling and recovered for the first time in the history, compared to 2017, increase 23%.
My time is out. But anyway, I'm going to talk a little bit about MAB program. You know, the Yangtze finless porpoise is not our only concern, and even the Yangtze river is not the only concern of ours. We have to see a big picture. We have to find a way to coexist with nature, with the environment, with this earth, which is the only one, only planet where human race can live on. We have to find a way to coexist with them peacefully and harmoniously.
So this is where the MAB program came in. Since 1973, we joined this MAB program. We built up a network of biosphere reserves in China. This is the world's largest MAB national network. And the number of members has grown from 45 in 1993 to 200 today And 34 of them have become UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. And all the Yangtze finless porpoise reserves joined this network.
So what do we learn from MAB practice in China? Humans are the root cause of many environmental and ecological problems in the biosphere, but they can also be the dominant force in solving or preventing the problems. Nothing is easy, but if we keep our mission in mind and stay true to our original aspirations, we can fully liberate our creativity and make a difference. In the universe, the Earth's biosphere may be the only one. For the sustainable future of our human race, we need to coexist harmoniously with the biosphere and go forward hand in hand.
This is a picture taken in the Poyang lake. I can say now we are more confident than ever before in protecting the most beautiful smile of Yangtze river.
So this is my last slide. The 5th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves will be held in Hangzhou, China. Welcome to Hangzhou, China. Thank you very much!
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