Wildlife in China: Giant Panda National Park maintains integrity of wild habitats
By Published: Dec 05, 2022 08:56 PM Updated: Dec 05, 2022 08:50 PM
Editor's Note:
With China as the country of presidency, the second phase of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) is set to be held in Montreal, Canada later in December.
This series will show the various animals and plants in China that thrive as a result of the country's efforts in biodiversity conservation and building up sustainability.
Driving from Ya'an in Southwest China's Sichuan Province along the Yaxi Expressway, you will reach the southern gate of the Chinese Giant Panda National Park, a long 34-kilometer stretch of road in Yingjing county with bamboo on both sides.
The more than 800-square-kilometer park, which encompasses parts of the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi, is one of the important ecological barriers of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
About 80 percent of Yingjing county is covered by forests. Taking advantage of this natural environment, the county has focused on protecting biodiversity and conservation of rare species such as the giant panda. Rewilding giant pandas raised by humans is one of the park's most important missions, according to the management bureau of the park.
Three giant pandas have been rewilded in the Yingjing section of the panda park. Additionally, among the 28 wild giant pandas active in the county, the DNA of 11 of them has been collected for further research.
"The rewilding efforts can help human-raised pandas mate with wild pandas, which helps increase the number of the species," Zhao Songsheng, manager of YueWeiLai, a Chengdu-based NGO dedicated to protecting giant pandas, told the Global Times.
Protection efforts extend to all industries.
For instance, some factories that pose a threat to the environment, including 62 water power plants and coal mining plants, have been closed to keep the national park safe.
The county has also been exploring more sustainable means of development such as promoting tourism related to the giant panda park, building local tourism brands and encouraging local residents to move into ecological industries.
The Giant Panda National Park encompasses different mountains such as Minshan Mountain and the Qinling Mountain Range. A total of 1,340 wild pandas have been discovered in the park.
Connecting 73 separate natural reserves and 13 local habitats, the park is responsible for the protection of roughly 72 percent of the wild giant pandas in China.
Zhao said that one of the most significant achievements of the national park is how it maintains the integrity of the habitat of giant pandas instead of separating it into scattered nature reserves, which would make it more difficult for wild pandas to survive.
With China as the country of presidency, the second phase of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) is set to be held in Montreal, Canada later in December.
This series will show the various animals and plants in China that thrive as a result of the country's efforts in biodiversity conservation and building up sustainability.
Pandas in the Chinese Giant Panda National Park Photo: Courtesy of China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment
Driving from Ya'an in Southwest China's Sichuan Province along the Yaxi Expressway, you will reach the southern gate of the Chinese Giant Panda National Park, a long 34-kilometer stretch of road in Yingjing county with bamboo on both sides.
The more than 800-square-kilometer park, which encompasses parts of the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi, is one of the important ecological barriers of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
About 80 percent of Yingjing county is covered by forests. Taking advantage of this natural environment, the county has focused on protecting biodiversity and conservation of rare species such as the giant panda. Rewilding giant pandas raised by humans is one of the park's most important missions, according to the management bureau of the park.
Three giant pandas have been rewilded in the Yingjing section of the panda park. Additionally, among the 28 wild giant pandas active in the county, the DNA of 11 of them has been collected for further research.
"The rewilding efforts can help human-raised pandas mate with wild pandas, which helps increase the number of the species," Zhao Songsheng, manager of YueWeiLai, a Chengdu-based NGO dedicated to protecting giant pandas, told the Global Times.
Protection efforts extend to all industries.
For instance, some factories that pose a threat to the environment, including 62 water power plants and coal mining plants, have been closed to keep the national park safe.
The county has also been exploring more sustainable means of development such as promoting tourism related to the giant panda park, building local tourism brands and encouraging local residents to move into ecological industries.
The Giant Panda National Park encompasses different mountains such as Minshan Mountain and the Qinling Mountain Range. A total of 1,340 wild pandas have been discovered in the park.
Connecting 73 separate natural reserves and 13 local habitats, the park is responsible for the protection of roughly 72 percent of the wild giant pandas in China.
Zhao said that one of the most significant achievements of the national park is how it maintains the integrity of the habitat of giant pandas instead of separating it into scattered nature reserves, which would make it more difficult for wild pandas to survive.
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