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 of the lift will be 21 minutes. It says that the expected dimensions of the passenger vessels the ship lift's basin was designed to carry will be X X . The moving mass (including counterweights) is 34,000 tonnes. The trials of elevator finished in July 2016, the first cargo ship was lifted in July 15, the lift time comprised 8 minutes. "Shanghai Daily" reported that the first operational use of the lift was on September 18, 2016, when limited ""operational testing"" of the lift began. Plans also exist for the construction of short portage railways bypassing the dam area altogether.