One of Yokohama Rubber’s manufacturing subsidiaries in China, Hangzhou Yokohama Tire, has started biodiversity conservation activities in partnership with Hangzhou Normal University’s College of Life and Environmental Sciences.
The activities are focused on protecting the biodiversity of the riverside marsh located adjacent to the subsidiary’s plant in the Hangzhou Xiaoshan technological development zone in the country’s Zhejiang Province. Over the next three years, the partners plan to monitor water quality and study the variety of wildlife in the wetlands, with the goal of supporting recovery of the area’s biodiversity.
The riverside marsh is a natural wetland covering an area of more than 5km² along the shore of the Qiantang River and attracting a wide variety of wildlife. However, the convergence of companies in the development zone and a growing nearby population have led to increased pollution of the riverbank and deterioration of the marsh’s water quality, resulting in the deterioration of the local ecological environment.
Hangzhou Yokohama plans to spend the first year of the three-year program getting a better understanding of the current state of the marsh’s biodiversity before beginning a series of experiments and follow-up verification aimed at restoring the area’s biodiversity in the second year. In the third year, the subsidiary will use the results of those tests to begin activities designed to restore the marshland’s biodiversity.
June 24, 2015
