Abstract: Background The Southwest Rivers, with its remarkable climate, topography and geology, is an important ecological security barrier in China's “three zones and four belts”; the upper reaches of the rivers have large elevation differences and rich hydropower resources, making it an important hydropower energy base in China; the construction of hydropower projects inevitably produces slope destabilization, soil erosion and vegetation degradation, etc. The construction of hydropower projects in the Southwest Rivers has a great impact on the ecological degradation mechanism of hydropower projects under the extreme cold/drought conditions. Methods For the Southwest rivers under the extreme conditions of alpine / arid hydropower project disturbance slope ecological degradation mechanism, engineering disturbance and cold and arid environment under the composite stress of native plant resistance mechanism and diversity maintenance mechanism, freezing and thawing of arid environment vegetation matrix “water - soil - gas - life” interactions and resilience mechanism and other scientific issues, relying on BDa, RM, GS and other major hydropower projects to carry out technology application demonstration. Carry out technology application demonstration based on BDa, RM, GS and other major hydropower projects, and carry out activities of national key R&D programs. Results It will focus on cracking the key technical bottlenecks such as selection and breeding of excellent stress-resistant plants and stable community planting technology, creation of cold- and drought-resistant and erosion-resistant planting substrate and reconstruction of planting layer technology, and multi-dimensional synergistic technology of hydropower project-disturbed slope protection and ecological restoration, so as to provide integrated and systematic solutions for the ecological protection of slopes in disturbed areas of the upper reaches of the Southwest rivers of the major hydropower projects.