GIANT PANDA CONSERVATION


(Projects CN0005, CN0021, CN0022, CN0064)



he giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is perhaps the world's best known symbol of nature conservation. It is also one of the most threatened mammal species: only about 1,000 pandas survive in the wild. This is partly the result of poaching - pandas sometimes get caught in snares set for other animals. More importantly, its habitat has been severely depleted by agricultural development and logging activities. It is not only the panda which is threatened by this habitat loss. Other endangered species such as the Sichuan golden snub­nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellanae), Himalayan musk deer (Moschus chrysogaster), golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus) and Asiatic black bear (Selenarctos thibetanus), which share the panda's habitat, are facing similar problems.

WWF's early panda conservation efforts focused on finding out more about the little­known animal and its habitat. Researchers studied its behaviour and biology, along with the reproductive biology of its food plants, in order to lay a sound scientific basis for the conservation programme. WWF contributed to the construction costs of a research laboratory and a captive­breeding centre at Wolong, China's biggest panda reserve. The centre, which also serves as a base for scientific field work, was established in 1983, and in September 1991, twin panda cubs were born there. Up to October 1995, there have been ten more births, making the centre one of the most productive panda captive­breeding centres, after the Beijing and Chengdu zoos. A large part of this success was due to the arrival of a veterinary expert, supported by WWF, in mid­1991.

In 1989, WWF and China's Ministry of Forestry jointly produced a "Management Plan for the Giant Panda and its Habitat". This focuses on setting up 14 new reserves, maintaining or re­establishing "bamboo corridors" which allow the otherwise isolated groups of pandas to communicate and interbreed, and improving the management and protection of panda reserves. The plan was further refined by the Ministry, and developed into "The National Conservation Programme for the Giant Panda and its Habitat" (NCPGP). The ten­year programme, which only received approval from China's State Council (Cabinet) in 1992, has a budget of RMB300 million or US$35.7 million (US$1 = RMB8.4), 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 Shaanxi Province and Anzihe in 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 Forestry in Beijing. WWF will also start work at Wanglang Reserve in northern Sichuan's Min Mountains. This is in addition to other on­going WWF­supported activities such as reserve management planning, guard training at Wolong, and the research work of Pan Wenshi, one of China's leading panda experts.




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Copyright 1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature