Over the past decade, China's Yangtze River protection campaign has delivered notable ecological improvements across water quality, shoreline restoration and biodiversity recovery.

In 2025, the river's main stream and tributaries were generally rated as having excellent water quality, with 98.9% of monitored sections meeting Grade I-III standards.

On land, large-scale restoration has reshaped the river basin: nearly 10,000 chemical enterprises have been shut down, upgraded, relocated or converted; 162 kilometers of shoreline have been restored; 12.25 million square meters of riverbank vegetation has been replanted; 1,361 illegal docks have been rectified; and more than 200,000 sewage outlets have been standardized.

Ecological recovery is also reflected in flagship species protection. The Yangtze finless porpoise population, once severely affected by fishing, shipping, hydropower development and pollution, declined to 1,012 in 2017.

In response, China launched experimental reintroduction efforts in 2023, supported by captive breeding facilities in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province. Before release, porpoises undergo survival training to adapt to natural river conditions, including learning to find food, navigate strong currents and cope with vessel noise.

The 10-year fishing ban has further supported ecosystem recovery. Endangered species such as the Chinese tapertail anchovy have reappeared more frequently in the river, supported by artificial breeding and planned release programs aimed at rebuilding wild populations and improving ecological balance in the Yangtze system.

At the river's estuary, Chongming Island in Shanghai has been undergoing large-scale ecological restoration since 2016, with the goal of building a world-class eco-island through coordinated land-sea management.

A key feature is the estuarine marine ranch system, completed by the end of 2024, which provides a transitional habitat for juvenile Chinese sturgeons migrating from freshwater to the sea.

In 2025 monitoring, 25 Chinese sturgeons were recorded in the estuary area, with about half observed near the marine ranch, which enhances food availability through artificial reef ecosystems.

The estuary region also serves as an important ecological corridor along the East Asian-Australasian migratory flyway. Located on the eastern tip of Chongming Island, the Dongtan wetland restoration project has created around 25 square kilometers of high-quality habitat, supporting more than 300 bird species, including 20 nationally protected first-class species and 62 second-class protected species.

Together, these efforts reflect a decade-long transformation of the Yangtze River from upstream to estuary, marked by measurable gains in water quality, habitat restoration and biodiversity conservation.