Foreign delegates tour Yangtze restoration in Hubei's Yichang

A delegation of foreign officials and human rights scholars recently visited Yichang, Hubei province, to observe the city's decade-long Yangtze River restoration efforts as part of the Human Rights Action in China·2026 Hubei Province Tour.
Representatives from Madagascar, Mongolia, Chile, Uruguay and other countries visited the Three Gorges Dam, Xujiachong village, and the Yangtze River Protection Education Base.
At the Three Gorges Dam, Rajaobarielina Faratiana, acting director of legal, consular, and litigation affairs of the Republic of Madagascar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the project showed that large infrastructure need not come at residents' expense. He pointed to the government's resettlement process as an example of people-centered development, and said China's approach to combining construction scale with ecological responsibility would inform infrastructure planning in Madagascar.
In Xujiachong village, the delegates examined how communities have developed livelihoods through tea cultivation, embroidery cooperatives, rural homestays, and e-commerce. Conservation work along the river has also created jobs in habitat management and research.
Gui Xiaowei, a professor in human rights study from Wuhan University said Yichang's experience showed that environmental protection and economic development could be advanced together, offering lessons for countries seeking to avoid the ecological costs of rapid industrialization.

Source:   chinadaily.com.cn,   en.hubei.gov.cn