05/09/2005 - Nothing quite
prepares you for the thrill of seeing a giant
panda — so distinct in their black and white
fur, so intriguing in their slow, bearish
movements.
It is hard to take your eyes off China’s national
icon as it happily munches on a bamboo shoot,
apparently oblivious to the shrieks of delight
from a party of schoolchildren. Unfortunately,
this is not that rare moment of spotting an
endangered species in the wild, but one shared
with the 600 or so visitors who come each
day to the panda breeding centre in Chengdu,
the capital of Sichuan province.
The Giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)
was once widespread throughout southern and
eastern China, as well as in neighbouring
Myanmar and northern Vietnam. Due to expanding
human populations and development, however,
the species is now restricted to only 20 or
so isolated patches of forest throughout several
of China's mountain ranges.
“The greatest threat to the giant panda population
is that the area in which they live is becoming
smaller and more fragmented,” said Yan Yang,
species programme coordinator at WWF, the
global conservation organization.
“This is because of human activities such
as logging, expansion of farming into forest
areas, mining, and road-building.”
It is a dangerous world out there, especially
in the mountains of south-west China where
pandas vie for territory with people, particularly
hunters and loggers, as well as with dam construction
and mass tourism. They have also been victim
to China’s tumultuous history.
Despite Chairman Mao Zedang’s disastrous
“Great Lead Forward” programme in the early
1960s to help jump-start the Chinese economy
through the creation of large agro-industrial
communes, inefficient and poor planning lead
to starvation and the deaths of millions.
Many desperate for food turned to hunting,
even the hunting of pandas, to survive. Though
panda hunting was eventually banned in 1963,
illegal poaching of other animals continues
to this day. In recent years, several pandas,
however, have been caught in traps meant for
other targets, and some panda pelts have been
confiscated by the authorities.
Fragmentation of their habitat from intensive
road, dam, and urban construction has also
led to a dramatic decline in numbers. By the
mid-seventies a government survey showed only
1,000 pandas remained in the wild.
Panda oasis
There are signs, however, that the panda
— so long on the brink of extinction — is
fighting back, thanks to improved panda protection
measures by the Chinese government and non-governmental
organizations, such as WWF (which has used
the panda as its international symbol since
its inception in 1961). Improved panda protection
has included the establishment of nature reserves,
which have become an oasis for the highly
threatened species.
Today, there are more than 50 reserves over
10,400sq km, hosting two-thirds of the panda
population. For 25 years, WWF has been supporting
the reserves, particularly in the Minshan
Mountains in Sichuan and Gansu provinces and
in Qinling in Shaanxi province.
In the Wanglang nature reserve in the Minshan
Mountains — at the foothills of the Tibetan
Himalayas — WWF has equipped and trained dozens
of rangers who regularly mount anti-poaching
patrols over the reserve’s 320sq km of forests.
Poaching, which incurs a ten-year jail sentence,
is rare these days, although pandas have been
known to get caught in traps set for other
animals. The population in the reserve has
stabilized at 32 after a high of 66 in the
mid-1960s and a low of 19 in the 1970s. The
main task of the staff has been to monitor
the movements and behaviour of such an elusive
and solitary animal.
“Like most of my colleagues here, I have
never seen a panda face to face,” admits Chen
Ai, a researcher from Beijing University who
is spending six months at Wanglang. “But just
the same, it’s a good feeling to know that
one is not too far away.”
Researchers like Ai spend their days tracking
the pandas by analyzing paw tracks, their
distinctive bite marks on bamboo shoots, and
even their droppings.
Since last October, Chen Ai and the research
team have had another tool in their panda
protection toolbox — an infrared camera. With
30 cameras strapped to trees throughout the
reserve — the first reserve in China to introduce
them — catching a panda has just become a
whole lot easier.
Leaping across crystal clear streams and
bounding noiselessly through the thick bamboo
undergrowth, Liang Chunping, a reserve ranger,
retrieves a film in one of the hidden cameras.
The cameras have struck lucky five times,
snapping a couple of pandas in action.
“The cameras are helping us build up a picture
of panda behaviour,” said Alan Carlson, a
WWF species expert. “In another reserve pandas
use to be fitted with radio collars but that
was stopped after one died from suffocation.
This technology is much more panda-friendly.”
The most recent national survey carried out
by the Chinese authorities, with the support
of WWF, revealed 1,600 pandas are left in
the wild — over 40 per cent more than previously
thought.
Due to improved monitoring methods, like
the use of GPS and cameras, this is one of
the most accurate surveys to date. But the
increase in numbers does not mean that the
panda is out of the woods yet.
A fragmented habitat
The mountain forests of south-west China
where many pandas live are fragmented. Habitat
destruction continues to pose a threat to
many pandas, particularly those living outside
the designated reserves. Today, only around
60 per cent of the population is under protection
in reserves. As China’s economy continues
its rapid development and population grows,
it is more important than ever to ensure the
giant panda’s survival.
“If we are to prevent some populations of
pandas from dying out, we need to link up
their fragmented habitats so that they can
roam and meet new mates from a different gene
pool,” said Carlson.
Panda corridors are slowly being created
to link up some of the reserves. However,
ensuring safe passage between corridors is
becoming more difficult as economic development
is happening at a faster pace. The construction
of dams, as well as ever-expanding towns and
villages, is intruding on panda habitat.
Although banned in parts of the country in
1998, logging still poses one of the greatest
threats to the panda’s habitat. Because of
China’s dense human population, many panda
populations are isolated in narrow belts of
bamboo forests. Even that is continuing to
disappear as settlers push higher up the mountain
slopes. Ironically, many locals who once worked
in the logging industry have turned to poaching
and gathering wild medicinal herbs as their
sole way of eking out a living, further compounding
the situation.
The Wanglang reserve is also surrounded by
Baima villages, a minority tribal group of
some 1,400 people who for centuries have depended
on the forests as their main source of income.
“In the past relations with the Baima were
not so good,” said the reserve’s manager,
Chen Youping. “We were seen as the hated guardians
of the forest, but now they greet us as friends.”
WWF and the reserve are helping the Baima
develop alternative livelihoods to reduce
pressure on the panda’s forest habitats, including
the development of eco-tourism activities.
“Everyone used to be a logger, but now we
are opening up our homes to tourists visiting
the reserve who are keen to experience our
traditional music and customs,” explained
the head of the neighbouring Xiangshujia village,
Li Qin, dressed in traditional costume.
In addition, WWF, through small loans, has
helped village women set up a market for traditional
embroidered bags, jackets, and table cloths.
Honey bear
Xia Baoyi, a wiry 61-year old logger-turned-beekeeper,
has also benefited from WWF’s work in the
region.
“They taught me how to protect the bees from
winter frosts and prevent disease,” said Xia,
tending to his 27 beehives on a hill overlooking
the village. “When the weather is good, I
can earn 1,000 yuan (US$125) which helps me
supplement my son’s earnings as a goat herder.”
Xia’s honey, like that of other beekeepers,
is sold at the Wanglang reserve to passing
tourists. And thanks to a deal negotiated
with the help of WWF, the honey is now being
sold to Carrefour, Europe’s largest retailer,
which has a strong presence in China.
Six villages near three panda reserves are
also taking part in the Carrefour scheme.
In Tai Ping Cun, a nearby village in Jiuzhaigou
County where farmers still plough their fields
with oxen, locals are growing walnuts, potatoes,
and Chinese peppers for sale in four branches
of Carrefour in Chengdu.
“Carrefour pays me six yuan per kilo for
my walnuts,” said farmer Liu Yupmin. “I would
get half that from a middleman.”
Antoine Bloch, a Carrefour manager in Chengdu,
stresses that the scheme allows the company
to put some thing back into the community.
“Selling is what we do best,” he said. “So
offering new markets for this produce not
only provides the villagers with a sustainable
living but also helps conserve the forests
and the panda.”
Carrefour has been a member of WWF China’s
Corporate Partnership Programme since 2002.
The programme offers businesses in China an
opportunity to work together with WWF to improve
the society and environment in which they
do business.
“We hope that through WWF’s partnership with
Carrefour, we can create market demand and
a stable marketing channel for these products,
and ultimately permanently improve the standard
of living of these communities,” said Ding
Jing, WWF China’s Corporate Partnership Manager.
“It is a win-win situation for everyone.
By buying environmentally-friendly produce,
the Chinese are really doing their bit to
protect their national treasure, the giant
panda.”
* Claire Doole is Head of Press at WWF International
NOTES:
• A member of the bear family, the giant
panda is the only species in its genus. Giant
pandas have a white coat with black fur around
their eyes, on their ears, muzzle, legs, and
shoulders. The unique physical features of
the species include broad, flat molars and
an enlarged wrist bone that functions as an
opposable thumb — both of these adaptations
are used for holding, crushing, and eating
bamboo. The animals have the digestive system
of a carnivore, but they have adapted to a
vegetarian diet and depend almost exclusively
on bamboo as a food source. A giant panda
can consume 12–38kg of bamboo a day to meet
its energy requirements.
• In 2004, the results of the most comprehensive
survey of China's giant panda population revealed
that there are nearly 1,600 pandas in the
wild, over 40 per cent more animals than previously
thought to exist. These findings came from
a four-year-long study of pandas and their
habitat carried out by the State Forestry
Administration of China and WWF. The survey
also provided information on where giant pandas
are living and the condition of the forests
and bamboo they depend upon. The survey discovered
pandas living in regions not thought to have
the species, and also pinpointed a number
of threats to their long-term survival, including
deforestation and continued poaching.
