The Yangtze-Mississippi river EcoPartnership: Bringing together two great rivers

Abstract

How does one connect two of the most important rivers in the world? In the East, China's longest river, the Yangtze, stretches 6300 km from the Tibetan Plateau to the port of Shanghai. In the West, the longest river in the United States, the Mississippi, runs 5970 km from northern Minnesota down to the Gulf of Mexico. Both rivers play vital roles in the cultures and economies of their respective countries. Each river system gives life to a wealth of biodiversity while providing millions of people with drinking water, hydroelectric power, and a number of other services. The vitality of the Yangtze and Mississippi faces challenges, however, and the fisheries resources of these two great rivers face specific and common threats. That is why The Nature Conservancy and the Yangtze River Basin Fisheries Resources Management Commission (YFC) came together to form an EcoPartnership to help preserve the natural fisheries of these two great rivers. (Note: YFC recently became the Yangtze Fisheries Bureau, with fisheries responsibilities for all rivers in China from the Yangtze on south and greater administrative authority. The great rivers partnership logo uses the rubric of the Changjiang Fisheries Agency, retaining the Chinese pinyin for the name of the river.