Help pandas live

DAVID Thurston must be congratulated on the excellent article ''Panda to the public'' (Sunday Morning Post Magazine, November 7). His research was thorough and enlightening about the situation on the survival of one of the world's most endangered species. The article highlighted the most important problem facing the survival of the panda today - the need to be left alone in its natural habitat.

The Woolong administration's decision to build a hotel, and a food and water bottling plant is the blueprint to sign off the last panda in the wild. Large investments into the latest technology to develop breeding programmes have all but failed. We can say goodbye to the panda or we can shed our layers of arrogance and acknowledge the one answer to the survival of one of nature's most beautiful creations.

HEENA PATEL Environmental Investigation Agency Hong Kong