The baiji is designated in the First Category of National Key Protected Wildlife Species and has full legal protection throughout its range. Protection from deliberate killing or injury appears to be effective but, as noted above, prohibitions on harmful fishing methods are generally not very effective and there is no evidence that baiji are protected in any way from the mortality, injury, and health impairment caused by the other threats listed above.

Since the late 1980s, the primary strategy to prevent the baiji's extinction was to capture as many dolphins as possible and to introduce them into "semi-natural reserves", one of which (Tongling) was approved by the Chinese government in the 1980s, and the other (Shishou) in the 1990s. The approach of using semi-natural reserves as components of a broad-based conservation strategy was endorsed by international panels of scientists in 1986 (Perrin and Brownell 1989) and 1993 (Ellis et al. 1993, Zhou et al. 1994). It was premised on the assumption that the total dolphin population in the 1980s was approximately 300 and declining. Importantly, it was also premised on the expectation that an ex situ breeding population, preferably housed at two or more sites, would provide surplus animals for replenishment or reestablishment of the wild population, and not be viewed as an end in itself (Perrin and Brownell 1989, Ralls 1989, Perrin 1999).

However, the expectation that sufficient numbers of baiji could be caught and placed in the reserves to establish a viable ex situ population has proven unrealistic. Six capture expeditions, each lasting 2 to 3 months, were conducted between Chenglingji and Gongan in the 1990s. In 1995 a female baiji was caught and released in the Shishou reserve, a 21 km oxbow channel of the Yangtze River (Liu et al. 1998). Less than seven months later her carcass was found entangled in the escape-prevention net at the outlet of the reserve. At that time, one other baiji was in captivity - a male (Qi Qi) that had been rescued from fishing gear and rehabilitated in 1980. This animal remained in its dolphinarium tank at the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan until it died in 2002. At the time of this writing (August 2004; update in April 2007), no Baiji were in either of the semi-natural reserves or in the dolphinarium at Wuhan.

Scientific opinion has been divided on how to proceed with baiji conservation efforts. The Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission reviewed the status of the baiji in 2000, but members were unable to reach consensus on whether further attempts at live-capture should or should not be made (IWC 2001). The IUCN SSC Cetacean Specialist Group recommended in 2003 that: (1) available resources should be devoted to eliminating the known threats to the species in its natural habitat; (2) immediate action should be taken at national, provincial and local levels to fully enforce the bans on rolling hooks and electric fishing; and (3) if the capture/translocation effort continues, capture operations should be improved to prevent dolphin injury or mortality, water quality in the reserve should be kept at a high standard and finless porpoises should be removed to ensure against deleterious interactions between them and the dolphin(s) (Reeves et al. 2003). The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has developed a baiji conservation plan emphasizing the ex situ approach (Ministry of Agriculture 2001, Wang and Zhang 2002).

With the intention of improving the status of fishery resources, the central Chinese government has, since 2001, banned fishing in the entire middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (including appended lakes and tributaries) between 1 April and 30 June. This measure, if effective, could give some seasonal relief to baiji from one of the more serious lethal threats to their survival. In addition, serious efforts have been made in recent years to protect baiji and improve their habitat in the Xin-Luo National Baiji Reserve (established in 1992) and in two smaller reserves run by provincial governments (Zhenjiang and Tongling sections). In the Xin-Luo Reserve patrol boats monitor fishing activity, collect baiji sightings, rescue injured animals, and investigate dolphin deaths. Several shore-based monitoring sites have been established in the reserve to observe baiji. Perhaps the most important work carried out by reserve staff is that of enforcing the ban on electric fishing.

It is listed on CITES Appendix I.