21st June. China. A fox is seen in front of the Qinghai Coking Coal Group opencast coal mine, with the Chi-lien mountains visible in the background. A Greenpeace investigation revealed the presence of a giant coal mine that has been illegally encroaching onto a nature reserve at the source of the Yellow River. The sprawling mining operation, covering an area 14 times larger than the City of London, at an altitude of over 4,000m, was documented in detail for the first time by Greenpeace East Asia. With evidence gathered on the remote region with satellite images and analysis by legal experts, Greenpeace has established that the coal development violates a number of water protection laws and local nature reserve regulations.
© Wu Haitao / Greenpeace