Preservation efforts
China's government and relevant organs have attempted to mend the fragmented habitat of Chinese pandas for many years.
Wan Hui, director of the World Wildlife Federation (WWF)'s Xi'an Office, told the Global Times previously that WWF has been cooperating with local protection zones and governments to create walkways that connect different zones with high densities of giant pandas.
The project was launched in 2003 in Sichuan and Shaanxi. Workers there have been planting bamboo trees in the hopes of restoring giant panda habitats. Even though there are different theories on how the recovery should be implemented, in practice there are many constraints.
Scientists have had to fumble and experiment before finding methods that work in each particular region. Furthermore, in practical protection work, results are visible only in the long term.
"For example, when we were planting a certain type of bamboo, local protection zone workers found that it was hopeless and dying rapidly. But the second year we tried planting the bamboo, they grew well," Wan said. "When you are doing detailed, practical work, it's impossible to see quick returns."
China also plans to open a giant panda national reserve by 2020, which links isolated habitats in high-density reserves across Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. The planned 27,134-square-kilometer national park will have 111 pandas with 1,119 square kilometers of habitat land and 900 square meters of potential habitat area.
The park is expected to attract many visitors and tourists from around the world, but the government said it will make conservation a priority. The park will be divided into three parts: core protection land, ecological restoration and tourism and education zones.
According to Ouyang's team, additional measures could contribute to the long-term survival of the panda and prevent its conservation status from slipping back to "endangered." He believes that new legislation should set "ecological red lines" - boundaries that delineate mandatory conservation of key habitats and corridors to prevent further habitat erosion and human disturbance. Collective forests located within them can be converted to State-owned to reduce the risk of their being deforested through collective forest tenure reform.
Furthermore, nature reserves should expand to include key panda habitats inside the "red line" areas, given that two-thirds of the panda habitat lies outside the reserve. Corridors should also be established to connect isolated animals. The development of road tunnels should be preferred over traditional roads in corridor areas.
Through the new urbanization program, more people living within a panda habitat should be encouraged to relocate to less-ecologically-sensitive areas. Panda conservation should also take into account the requirements of other endangered species, including ecosystem services such as water supply.
Such an integrated conservation policy will gain more support from not only the government but also the public. The establishment of panda national parks will be able to coordinate and balance conservation with tourism development.
Panda Stats
67 reserves were established by 2013; 1,864 giant pandas live in China by 2013
Habitats decreased by 4.9% from 1976 to 2001, but increased by 0.4% from 2001 to 2013
Mean patch size of the remaining habitats decreased by 24.0% from 1976 to 2001, but increased by 1.8% between 2001 and 2013
Between 1982 and 2000, the human population within the panda's range increased by 13.5%
Between 2000 and 2010, the human population within the panda's range increased by 0.5%
