Over the past six years, China has spent Rmb4.55bn on conservation work to preserve the source of the Yellow, Yangtze and Lancang rivers, a local conservation official said.

The ecological conservation programme, initiated in 2005 with a budget of Rmb7.5bn, aims to halt degradation of the three-river region in northwest China’s Qinghai province, said Chen Yongle, chief of the conservation programme.

The investment has funded grazing bans, pasture conservation projects, inhabitant resettlements and artificial weather control.

Li Xiaonan, deputy chief of the conservation office, said since the efforts to repair the fragile plateau wetland, the rivers are able to hold more water and the quality of pasture land is improving.