The Future

The giant panda's greatest challenge is lightning speed economic development.

anda conservation has gathered impetus but at the same time the giant panda is facing its greatest challenge: lightning speed economic development. In the past decade, environmental awareness among the Chinese public has increased enormously, and the national government has positioned environmental protection as one of its top priorities. A series of large-scale national environmental programs has been launched, including a national natural forest logging ban, and ecological restoration in western China. But the country's promotion of its booming economy is often perceived to be at the cost of natural resources, sometimes even outside China's borders. Sustainable resource use and management is an issue that requires urgent attention. Panda conservationists should seize the opportunity to use China's national programmes to the advantage of the giant panda. We should move the conservation agenda forward in China in a bold and positive manner.

What needs to be done

	Researchers in the national panda survey help shed light on the current status of the panda population

Habitat restoration Maintaining the integrity, or wholeness, of China's giant panda population is one of the most important criteria for understanding the success of panda conservation. The recent national panda survey will provide a good baseline for understanding the current status of the panda population and the fragmentation of its habitat. Researchers are also looking at the factors that cause habitat fragmentation and population isolation. Therefore, one of the first steps is to identify new panda corridors and where they would be best located. For example, it is necessary to find panda areas that are linked, even loosely, and provide these with protection. Some deforested areas could be restored to create new corridors in order to establish a link or foraging path that pandas may pass through while moving from one forested site to another. It is also possible to simply extend or enlarge the panda habitat.

The 1998 logging ban and a newly launched "sloping-farmland regeneration" project provide much needed policy level support for adjusting land-use patterns in and around the panda habitat. These land-use plans should include restoration of habitat to allow expansion of China's giant panda population.

Population recovery and management

If habitat restoration is successful, isolated panda populations could be linked

If habitat restoration is successful, many giant panda populations that have been isolated from each other could be physically linked. This would potentially create the conditions for genetic exchange and thus create larger, more viable populations. If properly managed, this would go a long way to ensuring the species' long-term survival.

Anti Poaching Poaching pressure will continue, so anti-poaching measures need to be put into place indefinitely. What is needed in the future is a well-planned strategy with sufficient support ensuring that anti-poaching activity is consistent and continuous. Community participation in combating poaching will be critical, especially in areas not protected by nature reserves.

Monitoring, scientific research and database for better decisions Good management decisions must be based

	Information from the panda survey survey being integrated into a database, which ultimately will make reserve staff more effective

on up-to-date and scientific information. Systematic monitoring requires trained staff and a refined method that is easy to master, and is informative. Current monitoring activity should be improved so that it can provide necessary information and analysis.

Although intensive giant panda research has been going on for two decades, there are still many questions regarding the species' behaviour and ecology. A genetic study of all existing panda populations, especially those that are small and isolated, is also necessary.

All information derived from monitoring, surveys and research should be integrated into a database, analysed and shared. A preliminary GIS system is being set up in Sichuan, which should be user-friendly and managed by reserve and local staff so their daily management decisions are better orientated and more effective.

Strengthening existing panda reserves and protected areas Nature reserves in China are often not managed according to conservation objectives. For example, by the end of 1988, China had nearly 926 nature reserves covering 7.6 per cent of its total land area, yet there has never been a permanent fund to support them. The result is that many reserves face chronic financial shortages and are left to make up their budget deficits on their own, frequently through activities not in keeping with protected area goals. WWF is providing guidance to the Chinese government to help secure a stable funding mechanism for the nature reserve system.

Training more qualified conservation staff With increasing demands for more conservation projects, limited human resources are becoming an obstacle to panda conservation. Different types of training on varied subjects, both short and long term, should be emphasized in order to ensure the sustainability of conservation programmes. WWF is funding training of reserve staff, but much more is needed.

Participatory conservation approaches Harmonizing development and conservation is a long term and difficult job. One effective approach is to involve more "stakeholders"(i.e., the people directly affected) in conservation projects. Pilot Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs) have begun to show positive results. Such integrated efforts for panda-related land-use planning and management, and sustainable forest resource use, will enable local communities to improve their livelihoods, and promote local and higher-level policy changes. The lessons learned from these pilot projects need to be shared with other interested groups, especially in panda conservation areas. Rather than losing out from the presence of giant pandas, local people should derive economic benefits from them. A further benefit would be derived from improved ecological protection, on which all of us depend.

A new national panda action plan The previous National Conservation Programme for the Giant Panda and its Habitat was developed in the late 1980s and has been implemented since 1993. An evaluation of this programme is necessary. With more information and new challenges and opportunities, this is the time to develop a new national plan. The ongoing national survey will provide updated information and scientific insight into the current status of the giant panda, and experience accumulated over the past decade should also be used. Meanwhile, more international organizations have shown interest in panda conservation, and a new national plan that incorporates the interests and requirements of all parties will help guide future action in a more integrated and effective way.

If the goal of WWF's panda conservation programme - to secure the long term survival of giant pandas in the wild - is achieved, it would result in motivated and competent staff being employed in all panda reserves, with the support of all levels of government and society. Ideally, habitat outside reserves would also be managed sustainably, and the current trends of habitat degradation and fragmentation reversed. Additional suitable habitat should become available, so that giant panda populations can expand gradually. At the same time, panda conservation projects would raise conservation awareness, test the effectiveness of different approaches, build capacity in China, and promote environmental conservation through sound government policy.