XINING, June 5 (Xinhua) -- On the northern shore of Qinghai Lake, China's largest lake in the northwestern Qinghai Province, the village of Xinquan has long lived by the water. For generations, fishing was the mainstay of local life, providing livelihoods for countless families. But that way of life has now faded.
Today, the very men who once braved the lake to catch fish now patrol its banks, working to protect the waters they once relied upon.
"Fishing used to be a death-defying gamble. Now we guard life," said Kou Haishun, 52, a former fisherman.
Friday marks World Environment Day. The transformation of Xinquan Village is a microcosm of China's broader drive to balance development with ecological protection, guided by the philosophy that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets."
FROM CATCHERS TO PROTECTORS
In Kou's memory, a fishy smell had always hung over the village when he was young. In winter, villagers drilled through nearly a meter of ice and lowered nets in the biting cold.
"Sometimes the current swept the fisherman into the hole. Some never came back," recalled Kou, who started fishing at the age of 15.
For decades, the naked carp, a peculiar rare fish species vital to the entire "grass-river-lake-fish-bird-beast" food chain, was both food and currency for villagers. By 2002, relentless overfishing had reduced their numbers to under 2,600 tonnes, shattering the delicate balance of biodiversity. With fewer fish came fewer birds, and as river waters grew murkier, the very foundation of the villagers' homeland began to slip away.
To protect the biodiversity and ecosystem of the lake, the Qinghai provincial government has implemented six rounds of fishing bans since 2001, with the sixth round starting in 2021 and lasting a full decade.
A rescue center was established in 2003, where workers artificially breed and incubate spawning fish collected from the lake's rivers. Each year, the fish are released back into the waterways to swim into Qinghai Lake, rapidly replenishing the natural population.
Local authorities invested over 36 million yuan (about 5.3 million U.S. dollars) to restore waterways and build seven fish passages, clearing the migration route for the naked carp.
With the government's help, some villagers in Xinquan have traded fishing for herding or cattle farms, while others now run restaurants, homestays or shops selling local produce.
Kou has founded a company focused on ecological restoration, tackling desertification, degraded grassland restoration and rodent infestation control in the Qinghai Lake basin and other areas, creating over 100 jobs for locals. On reforested land, his company has planted more than 60 hectares of grass to restore degraded pastures.
Li Yifan, a former fisherman in the village, now volunteers as a fish guardian. Every spawning season, he and other villagers form a patrol team, rescuing stranded fish and stopping anyone from disturbing the carp.
"We used to catch naked carp for money. Now we have realized that the fish is the soul of Qinghai Lake," Li said.
From ENDANGERED TO VULNERABLE
Thanks to the conservation efforts, the naked carp stock has rebounded more than 50 times to 133,000 tonnes. The lake's surface area has expanded for 21 consecutive years to 4,657.92 square kilometers. Water quality remains 100 percent excellent.
In 2020, China downgraded the naked carp from "Endangered" to "Vulnerable" on its biodiversity red list.
The Qinghai Lake basin is regarded as a "gene bank of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," a key water conservation area, and an important stop on international bird migration routes. With the environment steadily improving, the Przewalski's gazelle, a rare and endangered species found only in the basin, has grown from just over 300 in 2001 to more than 3,400 today. The number of black-necked cranes has also increased, from some 30 to over 130.
The concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" has become the core philosophy and action framework for China's eco-civilization construction.
The country has enshrined the vision in the national Constitution, incorporated ecological progress into the framework of five-year development plans, and established "Beautiful China" as a key goal in building a modern socialist country in all respects.
Chen Dehui, deputy director of the protection and management bureau of the Qinghai Lake scenic area, said that Xinquan Village's transformation reflects the ecological progress of Qinghai Lake, which is now on the verge of entering the national park era.
"With the national park in its preparatory phase, Qinghai Lake is embracing the best time for ecological protection," Chen said. Enditem
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