River Protection in China
In the Taihu basin of the lower Yangtze River in China, WWF and H&M launched the first Water Stewardship Industrial Park project, where more than 20 factories collaborated to improve water management.
In the Taihu basin of the lower Yangtze River in China, WWF and H&M group launched the first Water Stewardship Industrial Park project, where more than 20 factories collaborated to improve water management. The partnership developed an Industrial Park Guideline for water stewardship, based on industry expertise and the learning outcomes achieved in the Industrial Park project, this was applied by factory managers and is now to be integrated into the training programmes of the China National Textile & Apparel Council (CNTAC).
The partnership established the Taihu Forum, that aims to gather stakeholders in the area and to initiate a dialogue on sustainable water management in the Taihu basin. A new governance model for water was promoted by the forum and set a roadmap to water stewardship influence on water governance.
Together with stakeholders and scientists, an indicator system for basin health monitoring was developed for Taihu basin in the Yangtze river.
In the middle reaches of the Yangtze, the partnership supported a project to encourage farmers to use more sustainable practices, as a first step in restoring the health of the Yangtze river and saving the critically endangered finless porpoise (also known as the Yangtze “river pig”).