header: Giant Panda WWF Logo
line Ailuropoda melanoleuca (David, 1869)

CONSERVATION AND RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

Little was known about the habits of pandas until the 1940s when Chinese scientists began to make observations in the wild. Efforts to protect the panda began in 1957, and the first four panda reserves were established in 1963. Today there are 13 panda reserves with a total area of 5,827 km2.14 Most detailed knowledge of Giant Panda biology has come from studies in the early eighties of three distinctly different bamboo forest ecosystems: Wolong Reserve in the Qionglai mountains of the Sichuan Province; the Tangjiahe Reserve in the Min mountains of the Sichuan Province; and the Foping Reserve and Chongqing Forest Bureau area of the Qinling Mountains of Shaanxi Province. Research is continuing on bamboo ecology in Wolong and Tangjiahe Reserves.4

A Giant Panda Management Plan: In 1989, WWF and China's Ministry of Forestry jointly produced a Management Plan for the Giant Panda. This focuses on setting up 14 new reserves, maintaining or re-establishing "bamboo corridors" which allow the otherwise isolated groups of pandas to communicate and interbreed, and improving the management and protection of panda reserves. These 14 areas have been gazetted, but are no more than "paper reserves". They are however undergoing an intensive planning process, while the 13 original reserves are being redesigned. The plan was further refined by the Ministry, and developed into "The National Conservation Programme for the Giant Panda and its Habitat" (NCPGP). The ten-year programme, which only received approval from China's State Council (Cabinet) in 1992, has a budget of RMB 300 million or US$ 35.7 million (US$1 = RMB 8.4), of which a fifth will be provided by the Chinese government. WWF has agreed to help the Ministry raise the necessary funds to implement the programme.

Some of the NCPGP activities have already begun. Two new reserves were established in 1993 - Laoxiancheng in the Shaanxi Province and Anzihe in the Sichuan Province. The Sichuan Forestry Department has begun detailed designs for the 10 proposed reserves in the province. Several existing panda reserves have been upgraded, and a central office to oversee the NCPGP is up and running at the Ministry of Forest in Bejing. WWF will also start work at the Wanglang Reserve in northern Sichuan's Min Mountains. This is in addition to other on-going WWF-supported activities such as reserve management planning, guard training at Wolong, and the research work of Pan Wenshi, one of China's leading panda experts.16

Planning and Establishment of the Longmenshan Reserve, Sichuan Province: The Ministry of Forestry and the Sichuan Forestry Bureau are planning the establishment of the Longmenshan Reserve, Sichuan Province.10 The objectives of this project are to establish a nature reserve in the northern Min Mountains protecting more of the Giant Panda's fragmented range, and with it the high biodiversity associated with this region. This planned reserve covers 970 km2, and has been given high priority in the Ministry of Forestry's program to protect the Giant Panda.

Panda Loans: One issue which has served to cloud the problems of conserving Giant Pandas and their habitat is that of panda loans. On many occasions in the past, the Government of China has presented a foreign state with a gift of a Giant Panda as a symbol of friendship and a willingness to collaborate on various issues. From this trend grew the notion of short-term exhibition loans to foreign zoos. In the past, this activity has raised funds for panda conservation in China.

WWF and other conservation organisations have, however, expressed concern over short-term loans, largely on grounds that such activities were not part of an integrated breeding programme. In addition, such loans were viewed as placing further pressure on wild panda populations since there was a financial incentive to maintain a large stock of captive animals for loans. Following approval of the NCPGP by the Government of China, there has been a renewed surge of interest from zoos in the West to obtain pandas for exhibition purposes. The Chinese wish to encourage this trend in order to obtain revenue from these loans to support implementation of the NCPGP.

Although WWF remains opposed to all short-term exhibition loans, changing circumstances - namely improvement in captive breeding success and our greater knowledge of panda behaviour and ecology - have meant that long-term breeding loans as proposed by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association and the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens may benefit panda conservation. This situation is under constant review by WWF and other scientific organisations.


<---- Contents
line