As China continues to mull damming it’s last free-flowing river, China Dialogue examines a “viable” alternative:
In many parts of China, the development of eco-tourism is one strategy among many, but in Yunnan’s Nu River valley, it is a race against time.
In fact, if tourism based on the area’s outstanding natural beauty fails to increase soon, that natural beauty itself may be exploited to raise people’s living standards. With the decision whether or not to build 13 dams along the Nu River suspended at a critical stage, some locals say that a surge in tourism would support the conservationist case. [Full Text]
For a vivid account of the Nu River’s plight, see Brent Huffman’s CDT account in 2005 of his trip to the river with partner Xiaoli Zhou to film the documentary “Damming the Angry River.”
[Image: A tourist rides a zip-line across the Nu River, from tangtang via Flickr]
