25 Oct
2006 - Beijing, China – China has committed to
protecting more than 700 giant pandas, almost
half the total surviving in the wild.
The commitment by the southwestern
provinces of Sichuan and Gansu to establish almost
1.6 million hectares of new protected areas in
the Minshan Mountains will connect isolated panda
populations, further helping to ensure the future
health and survival of this iconic species.
WWF has recognized the efforts
by the two provinces to preserve giant panda habitat
in Minshan as a Gift to the Earth, the global
conservation organization's highest accolade for
significant conservation achievements.
"The Gift to the Earth
recognizes the two provinces for their longtime
cooperative contribution to biodiversity protection
in Minshan, one of the most biologically diverse
temperate forest landscapes on Earth," said
WWF International Director General James Leape.
The commitment by the provincial
governments involves the creation of new protected
areas, improved management of existing areas,
creation of linking corridors, cessation of logging,
bamboo forest restoration, and co-management for
panda conservation with other management agencies.
China’s third national panda
survey estimates that 1,600 panda survive in the
wild, with the populations in Minshan accounting
for 44.4 per cent of the total population.
The two provincial governments
have committed to establish, by 2010, a further
900,000ha of protected areas for other wildlife.
“We hope that the nature reserves
will expand continuously and more endangered wild
species will be protected," added Leape.
"We admire both provincial governments’ efforts
and promise to continue supporting conservation
work in this region.”
The Sichuan provincial government
has also agreed to retain a logging ban until
2010 covering 840,000ha of natural forest, while
Gansu has expressed its commitment to maintain
the logging ban covering 430,000ha of forest.
Since the 1960s, the two provinces
have together established a total of 1,592,000ha
of panda habitat.
China's forestry administration
has promised to conduct continuous monitoring
in panda habitats in Minshan, as well as in other
parts of the country where the endangered species
lives.
”This commitment to panda conservation
is of global importance,” said WWF China Country
Representative Dermot O'Gorman. “We hope that
China will continue its conservation work to create
a bright future in which humans live in harmony
with nature.”
END NOTES:
• The Minshan landscape is WWF’s
103 Gift to the Earth. China’s first Gift to the
Earth was awarded in 2003 following the Chinese
government’s commitment to protect 14 wetland
sites covering 1.95 million hectares. Other Gifts
to the Earth in China include: establishing the
Qinling Mountain range as a protected area network
for pandas, with 12 new reserves and five ecological
corridors (2003); the development, approval and
implementation of the National Environmental Educational
Guidelines for around 197 million Chinese school
children (2004); and the designation by the Heilongjiang
provincial government of 1,860,000 hectares of
protected areas (2005).
• WWF has been active in China
since 1980, when it was invited by the Chinese
government as the first international NGO to work
on the conservation of giant panda and its habitats.
In 1996, WWF opened its Beijing office, the first
of seven programme offices, including the Shanghai
Branch Office. Today, the WWF China Programme
Office has a staff of more than 70, working on
several conservation issues such species, forests,
freshwater, marine, climate change and education.
• Established in 1961, the World
Wide for Nature (WWF) operates in more than 100
countries, working to stop the degradation of
the planet's natural environment and to build
a future in which humans live in harmony with
nature, by: conserving the world's biological
diversity; ensuring that the use of renewable
natural resources is sustainable; and promoting
the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.
Tan Rui, Communications Officer
WWF China
