Three Gorges Dam murky. In 1997, the Three Gorges area had 10% forestation, down from 20% in the 1950s. Research by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization research suggested that the Asia-Pacific region would, overall, gain about of forest by 2008. That is a significant change from the net loss of forest each year in the 1990s. This is largely due to China's large reforestation effort. This accelerated after the 1998 Yangtze River floods convinced the government that it must restore tree cover, especially in the Yangtze's basin upstream of the Three Gorges Dam. Concerns about the potential wildlife impact of the
Three Gorges Dam from the dam to the main urban area of Chongqing by 2020. However, the municipal government explained that the relocation is due to urbanization, rather than the dam, and people involved included other areas of the municipality. Allegedly, funds for relocating 13,000 farmers around Gaoyang disappeared after being sent to the local government, leaving residents without compensation. The long reservoir flooded some 1,300 archaeological sites and altered the appearance of the Three Gorges as the water level rose over . Cultural and historical relics are being moved to higher ground as they are discovered, but the flooding inevitably covered undiscovered