(Originally published on 05/29/2016)

Hubei, China -- A female finless porpoise, named “E E”,  delivered the world first net-cage born baby finless porpoise on May 22^nd, in the Yangtze River Tian’e zhou National Nature Reserve (NNR), which is one of the eight United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)- Global Environment Facility (GEF) Hubei Wetland Project Pilot Sites.

Finless porpoise is a mammal known for its dolphin-like feature and iconic “smile” on its face.  The population of the finless porpoise has dropped quickly in the past few decades due to the environmental degradation such as pollution, habitat losses, navigation, dam construction, alongside threats from by-catching and illegal fishery activities .

To prevent the tragedy similar to that of the Yangtze River Beiji Dolphin, whereby extinction was largely due to human activities, the Chinese government has taken measures such as off-site conservation to protect the finless porpoises.  The Tian’e zhou NNR was established as an conservation site for porpoise at the beginning of 1990s, which has witnessed the growing of the porpoises population from 5 to 60 during the past years.

Aimed to better conserve the wetlands like the Tian’e zhou NNR in Hubei Province, which provides refuges to finless porpoises and many other important species, the UNDP- GEF China Strengthening the Effectiveness of the Wetland Protected Area (PA) system in Hubei Province Project was launched in 2014, to strengthen the management effectiveness of the wetland protected area system of Hubei province.

To increase the conservation efficiency of porpoise, the project has helped provide trainings to the staff in the NNR to improve their skills on wildlife and their habitat monitoring, photographing as well as other technical skills, with the goal of enhancing the conservation efficiency. In addition, the project also plans to engage the local communities into the porpoise conservation by establishing community co-management mechanisms with them, to better balance the needs between human development and biodiversity conservation.

“The conservation plan of the porpoises is going well as we planned,” said Mr. Hu Hongxia, the Program Officer of the NNR, “Now we are in close monitoring of the baby porpoise’s status, once it has turned one month old, we will be able to share more information.”

It is estimated that the 5-year project would  help to strengthening the management effectiveness to protect over 200,000 hectares of Hubei’s globally significant wetlands and associated species, including the finless porpoise.