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SCMP Reporter

It may be great to see the giant pandas An An and Jia Jia in Hong Kong, but give a thought to the fewer than 1,000 giant pandas left in the wild.

      In the 1980s many pandas starved to death because vast areas of bamboo forest disappeared. Bamboo is their main food. This was fatal to the species.

  Another factor that led to their destruction was poaching.

  However, the greatest threat to their survival is habitat destruction.

   In Sichuan province, where the majority of giant pandas live, the area of habitat occupied by pandas has declined from over 20,000 square kilometres to only 10,000 sq km in the years between the 1970s and 1980s. Further habitat loss has occurred since then. In the whole of China the estimated area of suitable panda habitat totalled only 29,500 sq km in 1996. This is not enough to support the wild population.

 The pressure is mainly from humans. Poverty drives the people living in or near panda reserves to exploit natural resources by logging, but such deforestation results in soil erosion and water shortages (because the ground cannot hold enough water). This threatens the people's future as well as the giant panda's.

 Studying pandas in captivity helps us understand more about their needs and so helps conservation in the wild.

   However, the main aim of captive breeding should be to provide animals for returning them to the wild. But before they are returned, we must ensure their habitat is intact.

   Since the 1980s the World Wide Fund For Nature has been working with mainland China's State Forestry Administration to conserve and protect the panda's habitat. The administration is working hard to implement a management plan drawn up in 1989.

 Twenty-nine giant panda reserves have already been established, covering an area of 12,000 sq km. Enforcement action and security patrols have been increased to stop hunting, trapping and habitat destruction.

  To help pandas move between reserves, there are also plans to establish 'bamboo corridors' which will allow otherwise isolated groups of pandas to communicate and interbreed.

 Giant panda conservation will not succeed without support from the local community. WWF is now working in Ping Wu, Sichuan to promote conservation for both people and pandas. The projects aim to promote sustainable resource use without harming the pandas and their habitat.

WWF HK is a local charity environmental organisation established in 1981 which aims to build a future in which people can live in harmony with nature. For information, please call 2526 1011 or e-mail to http://www.wwf.org.hk 



Protect China's bamboo forests to save the lovable pandas