This article was featured in Eurofish Magazine 2 2026.
China’s rapid economic development triggered a severe freshwater biodiversity crisis in the Yangtze River dating back to the 1950s. Despite significant investment in protected areas and restoration efforts over the past decade, biodiversity continued to decline. In response, the Chinese government implemented a basin-wide commercial fishing ban in 2021, a measure of extraordinary scale that required the recall of 111,000 fishing boats and the resettlement of 231,000 fishers, at a cost of more than 2.36 billion EUR across 11 provinces and municipalities.
A study published in Science evaluating the ban’s early effects finds that it has successfully reversed the long running decline. Fish biomass, species richness, and overall biodiversity have all shown measurable improvement since the ban came into force. The results suggest that decisive, large-scale protection measures can bend the curve of biodiversity loss even in heavily pressured freshwater systems, an outcome that had previously proven elusive despite substantial conservation spending.
The findings carry broader implications for fisheries management worldwide, pointing to the potential effectiveness of comprehensive fishing restrictions where more targeted interventions have fallen short. The ban is set to remain in place for ten years.
