I have a wildlife zoo

Researcher Gu then began explaining to Fang Ye.

"In the survey on the distribution of green peafowl I conducted prior to this, they were only found within the basins of the Red River, Lancang River, and Nu River. The area near the Lancang River used to possibly have the largest green peafowl population, but it's been utterly disrupted by the hydropower stations.

Now, only a bit remains along the Lancang and the Nu Rivers, while the Red River has become their biggest habitat."

"I haven't heard of that hydropower station you mentioned, but if it's in Xinping, then it must be planned for the segment of the Red River.

The biggest crisis for green peafowl now is the loss of habitat!"

A lot of people have a misunderstanding and think green peafowl live in dense tropical rainforests, but actually, that's not the case. They inhabit the tropical monsoon forests, which have sparse and open vegetation during the dry season when the leaves are shed. It's somewhat similar to the African savannas.

Why do green peafowl favor such habitats? It's probably because in the dense and humid tropical rainforest, their thick feathers easily harbor parasites and make them uncomfortable, right? This open habitat is better suited for the activities of green peafowl.

Most importantly, the herbage layer of the tropical monsoon forest is very well-developed. The plants belong to the grass family, which both ungulate animals and green peafowl like to eat. In contrast, the tropical rainforest grows plants from the arum family that are shade-tolerant but poisonous, like the Aglaonema, which many animals, at least green peafowl, can't eat.

Many of those monsoon forests have been chopped down to plant economic crops such as mango and macadamia nuts. Hence, their current habitat has severely shrunk. In fact, the deforestation alone wasn't the end of it.

The river valley is the main area where tropical monsoon forests are distributed, and once a hydropower station is built and the water level rises, the green peafowl's habitat is done for.

In the past, green peafowl were practically everywhere in Yunnan. One of my seniors, who studied birds, conducted surveys there in the 1960s. He used to hear the calls of green peafowl and see their forms daily; of course, such sights are now impossible to witness."

Fang Ye exclaimed, "Ah, that's such a pity."

Researcher Gu sighed, "Isn't it? Pu'er used to have large expanses of tropical monsoon forests.

On one survey trip, a ranger told me that at the end of the last century, if you took a boat down the Lancang River, in the morning you could see peafowl displaying their plumage by the river, elephants bathing in the river, wild buffaloes and herons drinking water along the riverbank, and hornbills flying overhead.

Such a beautiful place would have been great for a national park, not falling short of those abroad. But after the hydropower station was built, the entire forest has been submerged under more than 100 meters of water. It was submerged so completely that not even visual records were left behind; we don't even know how it disappeared.

The scenery was truly, truly exceptional. Especially in the dry season, the water was exceptionally clear. We even tested it once and found that the water quality was Grade One, meaning it was directly drinkable. Now, can you find a few main rivers in China with water quality that reaches Grade One? Hardly.

Aside from the beautiful landscape, the biodiversity here is also very rich. There are wild boars, leopard cats, red goral; downstream on the Red River, there's the Yangtze giant softshell turtle, and that area is their spawning ground. In recent years, a hydropower station was built downstream as well, and I don't know the current status of the softshell turtles.

There are many beautiful birds, such as Hume's pheasant, brown fish owl, Lady Amherst's pheasant, Chinese francolins, and bee-eaters. Theoretically, there are five types of bee-eaters, and especially in May, large numbers of Asian green bee-eaters and blue-throated bee-eaters nest along the riverbanks of Shiyang River and Luzhi River.

I remember, whether it was in Hainan or somewhere else, for the sake of protecting the nesting and reproduction of bee-eaters, a protection area was even established. But with the construction of this hydropower station, well, that's all gone."

"The plant life is also very rich here; the geographical environment is quite unique. The dry-hot river valley landscape is not only found in Africa, but also in China, right in the Red River area of Yunnan. The vegetation shares similarities in lineage, probably because of a piece of the Indian Plate that drifted over here during continental drift.

If we were to expand on this topic, it would get very complex."

Fang Ye couldn't help but ask, "With such great natural resources, how could the environmental impact assessment for building a hydropower station possibly be approved?"

Researcher Gu gave a wry smile, "Who knows? In any case, too many places have been silently submerged, with no way to stop it. No matter how good the base is, it can't withstand constant construction!"

Fang Ye said with gratitude, "Professor Gu, I'm truly thankful that you took the time to help me with my questions today, and in such detail! The two previous professors I asked didn't seem very willing to discuss this topic."

Researcher Gu responded, "You're giving me too much credit, Professor. I'm just relatively young, with fewer reservations! In our circles, the more senior you are, the more inconvenient it becomes to speak out, because there could be various backgrounds and forces at play, and speaking up might offend people.

Plus, some people rely on these environmental assessments for their livelihood, you understand. Ah, these thoughts have been bottled up inside me for quite a while now, I'm only sharing them with you privately."

"Alright, I'll consult you again if I have any issues."

After hanging up the phone, Fang Ye opened the website and began to frown as he searched for the environmental impact assessment report of the Gaba River hydropower station.

It seemed that except for some projects involving state secrets, environmental impact assessment reports are supposed to be made public!

He wasn't very familiar with where to find the reports and stumbled upon some news about the hydropower stations massively "discarding water" during his search.

It was roughly about how the installed capacity for hydropower had recently seen explosive growth, with the power generation capacity of the grid far exceeding the total market demand for electricity. There was a severe surplus in hydropower, resulting in a lot of wasted water.

Reading the reports, Fang Ye fell silent for a moment before continuing his search for the environmental impact assessment report!

Eventually, he found the report on a public disclosure website. The report was 599 pages long.

He quickly flipped through the pages to find the section relevant to the green peafowl: "The project will occupy and flood a total of 1800.03 hectares of forest land, which will result in the destruction of vegetation, leading to a certain loss of plant biomass and potentially affecting the integrity of terrestrial ecosystems in localized areas to some extent.

The wild animals that originally inhabited the area will be forced to migrate.

...The difference in habitats flooded at different water levels is not significant, and it will not change the regional flora and fauna, nor will it lead to species extinction, only having a certain impact on species numbers."

Fang Ye was at a loss for words, "Is this what passes for an environmental assessment? What the hell does 'will be forced to migrate' mean? Translate that for me, what does 'will not lead to species extinction, only having certain impact' mean?"

Researcher Gu had made it quite clear over the phone that the habitat of the green peafowl is the river valley seasonal rainforest, and they can't survive in other places. Of the original three river basins, only the population in the Red River basin is in a relatively better condition now.

"Forced to migrate," their habitat is either turned into economic cropland after deforestation or submerged by hydropower stations. With such a small area left, how could they migrate?