Yellow River Declaration
--- On Keeping Healthy Life of the Rivers

Water is the source of all sorts of life. River is the mother and the natural parent of human civilization and thriving life species.

Nowadays, the development of economic society has entered into a new era while river and water resources face unprecedented crises and challenges.

We are duty bound to take action to keep healthy life of our mother river with sanity, resolution, and confidence.

On October 17-21, 2005, experts and scholars from over 60 countries and regions and representatives from many international organizations meet together in Zhengzhou, China, to attend the 2nd International Yellow River Forum. Confronted with the unprecedented crises of the rivers, we carried out deep discussions and explorations on such issues as the river health, the significance of keeping healthy life of the river, and the means and aims to restore river ecosystem. We had a more profound understanding on the harmonious coexistence of human beings and rivers, and reached a common understanding on many important issues. Based on this, the Yellow River Declaration on Keeping Healthy Life of the Rivers is announced as the following:

River is the most ancient, most lively, and most creative life essence on the earth. Since remote antiquity, the river has been crossing over the highlands, breaking gorges, building plains, which not only formed rich and varied terrain, physiognomy and life species, but also nurtured, nourished and multiplied human beings and human civilization.

The river is a living body. In the running and cycling life system, water could exchange, transfer and renew through vaporization, rainfall, transportation, infiltration and surface flow, etc. In such way water brings more configuration, more diversities and magnificent and incomparable landscape. There is the deriving and overgrowing of human life because of the colorful life of the rivers.

Human beings and river depend on each other as lips and teeth and are bound together for good and ill.

However, due to the great impacts of human activities, many rivers in the world are facing unprecedented crises now: river source degradation, river tail vanishing, river bed silting up, river channel shrinking, river course running dry, as well as water pollution, which lead to the conflicts and even collapse of the ecosystem relying on the river. The continuing of civilization of all nations is suffering from ponderous suspiciousness and great challenging. 
 
Facing all kinds of challenges, people can’t help worrying deeply. Do modern human beings not only share the legacy of ancestors but also overdraft the wealth of offspring?

Keeping healthy life of the river is a waking up and regression of human beings in the nature, and it’s also the need for sustainable development of the society.

Based on this understanding,

We are duty bound: to carry out the idea of harmonious society, to promote the process of human beings getting along well with the nature, to maintain the dignity and right that river should have to make river preserve its integrality, variety and pureness and run healthily on the earth.

We are duty bound: to mobilize the strength of all walks of life of the society, to study healthy life theory of river, to explore the harmonious relationship of human beings and water, to set up new ethic concept between human beings and river, to make people cherish river life as cherishing their own lives and preserve river health in self-knowledge through publicizing and legislation.

We are duty bound: as speaker of the rivers, to envisage the harm done to river, to lead the overall situation with the view of scientific development, to systematically make up the integral development plan of basin economy and society, to cut down the index of overtopping the carrying ability of water resources, to promote mightily the adjusting of industrial structure and quicken the steps of setting up water-saving society.

We are duty bound: to supply sufficient space for river, and to improve the self-adjusting and self-renovating ability of river to reach the aim of harmonizing with natural ecosystem.

We are duty bound: to set up new river management strategy, to strengthen the conservation and leading to the river, to restore gradually the healthy visage of river with science as forerunner in exploring and practice to the target of making human beings, river and ecosystem harmonizing with each other.

We are duty bound: to cherish more the contribution of rivers to human civilization, to carry forward the creativity of rivers to human civilization, to remold the mutual identity of the residents in the basin, to strengthen the public participation and to promote the sustainable development of social civilization.

Should we respect river, treat river well, and protect our river.

Let us take active action hand in hand with the government, organization, enterprise, and each and everyone who has the aspiration to keep healthy life of the river and promote our ideality together.

Wish the river running and living forever!