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    The Giant Panda has captured the hearts of people around the world and become an enduring symbol of conservation efforts to save endangered species. One of the favourite attractions at zoos, the panda is extremely rare.It is difficult to calculate exactly how many pandas are left, but an estimated 800 live in the wild and roughly 100 live in captivity, mostly in zoos, breeding centres and special reserves in China. Yet despite all the attention to its plight and international efforts to save the panda, there is a real risk that it will become extinct. Once the Giant Panda roamed mountain lowlands from Myanmar through northern Viet Nam and much of eastern and southern China; but farming, development and clear-cutting have destroyed the bamboo forests that make up their natural habitat. More than 50 per cent of these forests have been lost in the past few decades alone - and they are not easily replaced. Bamboo flowers only every 80 to 100 years, and takes 20 years to grow enough to sustain a panda population. Then in the 1980s things got worse. Much of China's bamboo forests died out suddenly and inexplicably and over 150 pandas starved to death. This loss of habitat and encroaching human settlement forced pandas to retreat higher into the mountains where they are isolated and unable to travel to bamboo groves that can still sustain them. Scientists don't know if the Giant Panda's distinctive black and white markings are camouflage suited to their mountain homes or if it allows the solitary animals to recognize one another. Unfortunately, their distinctive fur also makes them attractive prey for poachers. And though they are protected in reserves, pandas are sometimes killed in illegal traps intended for antelopes and deer. Zoos and breeding centres are studying the habits of the solitary animal, hoping to encourage breeding but it is not easy. Even though pandas have low reproductive rates and high infant mortality in the wild, researchers report that they do not share the problems of those in captivity. In the natural state, all adult females and males appear to be involved in breeding compared to only 28 per cent of those in captivity. Isolated patches of panda habitat will not work. Conservationists say it is necessary to strengthen current panda reserves and establish viable corridors between them. China is making every effort to ensure the continuation of the panda species. Since 1963, the government has proclaimed 13 protective preserves where bamboo flourishes in six isolated mountain ranges in the Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansuin provinces of western China. However, the solution of habitat loss is challenging in China, because of the demand for land and resources by a population of over one billion people. "The only hope for the future of the panda is to balance the needs of humans and the needs of the panda." says Elizabeth Kemf of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). "Giant pandas need vast areas of temperate mountain forests with lots of bamboo; people living in the vicinity of the animals need secure sources of income and better livelihoods; and China needs help from the world's people to protect its 'national treasure' for all humankind". As part of a global effort to protect the planet and the animals that inhabit it, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) administers one of the world's largest conservation agreements, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This international treaty between governments aims to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. One major CITES decision concerns the loan of Giant Pandas to zoos. The large sums of money paid - up to $1 million or more a year-was an incentive to remove pandas from the wild. Now, they can only be exported if it helps conserve the species. Proper breeding facilities must be in place, and all monetary gains must go to protecting the Giant Panda. China is also enforcing strict laws against the poaching of pandas. Offenders can receive life sentences for selling fur on the black market. To date, 160 governments are bound to the CITES Convention, which offers varying protection to more than 35,000 species of animals and plants. Not a single species has become extinct since CITES began in 1975.
Learn more about how the UN works to protect endangered species. Check out the links next to the panda. Photo credit: Animal Planet/Discovery Networks |
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