Giant boost for the giant panda in time for Earth Day

“By doubling the protected areas for pandas in Qinling mountain range, the Chinese government will greatly help the survival of this species,” said Monte Hummel, President, World Wildlife Fund Canada.
Qinling is home to approximately 20% of the estimated 1,000 giant pandas living in the wild. This initiative will take protected areas for pandas in Qinling from 184,000 hectares (ha) to over 334,000 ha. It will also create five ‘corridors’ – zones that link protected areas and allow fragmented populations of pandas to cross from one protected area to another. Because human land use has restricted many populations of pandas to less than 50 individuals, this is crucially important if the threat of inbreeding is to be reduced.

In 1980 WWF became the first international conservation organization in China to study the giant panda. Early fieldwork was carried out by a Canadian, Don Reid from the University of Calgary, based on $400,000 raised from the sale of a giant panda print by famous Canadian artist Robert Bateman.

“The panda logo has become the banner heralding WWF’s conservation work on thousands of major projects around the world and here at home,” stated Hummel. “Just last week we announced another Gift to the Earth in Canada – the third since 1997 – for protecting 10.1 million hectares of land in the Northwest Territories Mackenzie Valley.”

“Because of the significance of this exciting initiative, and its potential to help ensure the survival of pandas in the wild, WWF International has recognized it as a Gift to the Earth,” said Dr. Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF’s International Species programme. “We applaud the Chinese government and remain committed to a partnership that aims to guarantee the future of this vital species.”

Five corridors are being created in total in Qinling – in the areas of Caiziping, Houzhenzi, Dashuping, Erlangba and Jiuchihe. The plan for creating these has already been incorporated into the implementation plan for the Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP), with a total area of 65,000 (ha) of corridors now under protection. It is estimated that the corridors will be functioning by 2005.

The five new giant panda reserves are Motianling Reserve, Guanyinshan Reserve, Sangyuan Reserve, Ningshan Reserve and Tianhuashan Reserve (87,000 ha in total). Among these, the establishment of the Ningshan Giant Panda Reserve offers the greatest potential for a substantial improvement in the overall condition of a small group of pandas that have been cut off from other panda populations in the central section of the Qinling Mountains. Seven more panda reserves totalling over 225,000 ha will be approved in Qinling by June 2004, taking panda protected areas for pandas in Qinling to over half a million hectares.

The Qinling Mountain range is the natural division between northern and southern China in terms of geography and climate, and the only area that acts as a water catchment for the country’s two most important rivers: the Yangtze and the Yellow rivers. It is also the only water source for Xi-an, China’s capital for 13 dynasties, which today has a population of over seven million people. The area has been identified by WWF as one of the 200 most important ecological regions in the world, and is home to a number of other endangered species including the golden monkey, takin and the Crested Ibis.

“The announcement of these new protected areas is a big step forward for both forest conservation and species protection in China,” said Dr Chris Elliott, Director of WWF’s Forests for Life programme. “This Gift to the Earth – integrating the needs of endangered species like the giant panda – and their habitat – can now be used as a great example for other conservation initiatives both in China and around the world.”