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Found only in China, one of the world's fastest growing and most populated regions, the giant panda clings to survival. The panda is endangered for the same fundamental reason that nature is imperiled throughout China, and indeed throughout the world: Explosive population growth and unsustainable use of natural resources are causing habitat for wildlife to vanish. Compounding these unrelenting pressures are a host of other impediments to giant panda conservation, such as habitat degeneration and fragmentation due to human activities, poaching, poor local communities who rely on natural resrouces for their livelihood, and a lack of equipment and facilities for patrolling. These are formidable hurdles, but promising developments in the last few years are grounds for guarded optimism. Although more improvements are needed, China has made encouraging progress in its conservation policies and actions. Innovative strategies are emerging for safeguarding giant pandas and their habitat while maintaining the livelihoods of local people. China is a crowded country developing at a blinding pace. This is the unalterable backdrop against which pragmatic conservation approaches must be developed. It is estimated that as few as 1,000-odd pandas remain in the wild today. Striking a lasting balance between nature conservation and economic development is the key to the giant panda's future. Objective By 2012, giant panda populations and their habitats increased by at least 10% in selected priority areas (Minshan in Sichuan and Gansu provinces and Qinling in Shaanxi province) through the mitigation of key threats to pandas and their habitat and the implementation of model conservation approaches by WWF and its partners. At the same time, through effective project demonstration and magnification, panda populations and their habitats elsewhere stabilized. Our main objectives are:
In 1980, when WWF became the first international conservation organization invited to work in China, the giant panda was much adored but little was known about the species. Panda reserve management was at its preliminary stage and most of reserves were too small and too weak to protect their extraordinary inhabitants adequately. WWF's involvement since those early years has advanced panda conservation in numerous ways. Groundbreaking fieldwork by eminent Chinese and Western scientists, under the auspices of the Chinese Ministry of Forestry (MOF) and WWF, shed new light on the panda's biology and ecology. Joint WWF-MOF panda surveys furnished population estimates and distribution data. WWF-supported analysis of satellite imagery depicted dramatic changes in panda territory. Training, equipment, and veterinary assistance provided by WWF enhanced the effectiveness of Wolong Nature Reserve and Captive Breeding Center, which was then at the core of China's panda conservation efforts. One of the major milestones of the first decade of cooperation between WWF and MOF was the creation of the National Conservation Management Plan for the Giant Panda and Its Habitat in 1992. The plan called for additional nature reserves, and migratory corridors to reconnect isolated populations. Currently the Chinese government has established 40 panda reserves protecting more than 16,000 square kilometers of forest in and around giant panda habitat. However, these reserves cover only a little more than half of the wild giant panda population, which is distributed mainly in the Minshan Mountains, Qionglai Mountains, Liangshan Mountains, Qinling Mountains, and Xiangling Mountains. After 20 years conservation experience and lessons learned from the practice of panda conservation, WWF's Panda Program is taking on a more strategic approach. Current Panda Program projects include:
State Forestry Administration (formerly Ministry of Forestry) Donors WWF Netherlands WWF US WWF UK WWF Germany Check out Panda Bear Central to learn more about these amazing animals, what threatens their survival, what WWF is doing to save them. © World Wide Fund for Nature. All Rights Reserved. |