The births of two baby giant pandas at the Chengdu Research Base in China has given scientists and conservationists renewed hope the endangered species may survive longer than predicted.
And with the giant panda as its logo, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is overjoyed. Formed in 1961, the pressure group has widened its remit from endangered animals to the preservation of the world's ecology.
Communication manager for WWF Hong Kong, Margaret Chan Mo-kit, has worked for the organisation for three years. She lives with her husband in Sha Tin.
What's on your mind? Encouraging local people to work with green groups to conserve nature.
Why have pandas become endangered? One of the problems is the destruction of their habitat. Logging, fires, poaching and bamboo flowering have all eroded their natural habitat. The population is also extremely fragmented.
What has the WWF done to stop the panda becoming extinct? In 1980, the WWF and China launched a project to find out more about the panda and to design a more scientific conservation programme. They produced a management plan in 1989 which set up 14 new reserves and bamboo corridors to link up the isolated groups of pandas so they could communicate and breed. Then, in 1992, a plan to look after the panda and its habitat was approved by the State Council.
