Exploring National Parks | Giant Panda National Parks: Ecological Stories Behind the Growing Population of Wild Giant Pandas Villagers | Giant Pandas | Population

Chengdu, July 26 (Xinhua) - "The Giant Panda National Park has innovated its system and integrated resources, established the Giant Panda National Protection and Research Center, protected more than 70% of wild giant pandas, and opened up population ecological corridors in 13 giant panda regions." Guan Zhiou, Director of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, recently introduced the achievements of the first batch of national park construction.

Hu Jinchu, the father of Chinese giant pandas, and Wang Pengyan, the then head of the Wuyi Shed monitoring station, analyzed giant panda feces and searched for their activity traces to accurately dispense supplementary feed. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jin Xuqi

In 1978, Hu Jinchu, the "father of Chinese giant pandas," led the establishment of the world's first wild ecological observation station for giant pandas, the "Wuyi Shed", in Wolong, Sichuan. After generations of unremitting efforts by "panda people", as of the end of 2013, the wild population of giant pandas had reached 1864. In 2016, the World Conservation Union announced that the threat level of giant pandas would be reduced from "endangered" to "vulnerable.".

Field investigations have shown that the originally vast habitat of giant pandas has been divided into "panda islands" due to human activities and other factors. The fragmentation of habitats has led to the interruption of communication between wild populations of giant pandas, resulting in the formation of 33 local populations, of which 24 are at risk of extinction.

On May 15th, in the Yingjing area of the Giant Panda National Park, Fu Mingxia, the person in charge of scientific research and testing at the Yingjing County Conservation Station, was flipping through the images of red pandas captured in an infrared camera. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Bingjie

On October 12, 2021, the Giant Panda National Park was officially established, spanning across the three provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu, with a total area of approximately 27000 square kilometers. "We protect giant pandas not only to protect this species, but also to protect a complete ecosystem," said Zhang Qian, a second level researcher at the Wildlife and Wetland Protection Department of the Sichuan Forestry and Grassland Bureau.

The infrared camera monitoring system and nature reserve network within the Giant Panda National Park provide effective data support for the construction of the Giant Panda Corridor. At present, the Giant Panda National Park has completed the construction of 9 giant panda corridors and 7 wildlife passages, restoring 128.5 square kilometers of vegetation, creating favorable conditions for the exchange of small populations of giant pandas isolated from each other.

On March 3rd, staff from the Tangjiahe area of the Giant Panda National Park discovered two wild giant pandas in the General Village area of Motianling.

In recent years, news such as "villagers encountering giant pandas coming out of the mountains in the middle of the night", "tourists encountering wild pandas climbing trees", and "wild pandas visiting villagers' yards" have frequently made headlines on the internet.

"The individual identification of giant panda DNA conducted by us in some regions has shown that the number of individuals in the region is increasing. As the number of individuals increases, the range of wild giant panda activities is also expanding, which is an important factor in the increase in the probability of encountering them," said the relevant person in charge of the Giant Panda National Park Management Bureau.

On May 15th, staff from the Yingjing County Conservation Station of the Giant Panda National Park were monitoring the restoration of their habitat in the wild. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Bingjie

In order to build the Giant Panda National Park, multiple mining rights in the Sichuan area have been cleared, more than a hundred small hydropower stations have been withdrawn, and residents in the core area of the park have been orderly relocated.

Yingjing County in Ya'an City is an important habitat for the wild population of giant pandas in the Daxiangling Mountains, with 48.7% of the county's area designated as the Giant Panda National Park. Yingjing County raised nearly 1 billion yuan in funds and closed over 140 mines, small hydropower stations, and small timber and stone processing plants. The Yingjing County Management and Conservation Station of the Giant Panda National Park is tracing the footprints of wild giant pandas in the deep mountains and dense forests, constantly exploring habitat restoration models for wild giant pandas.

In Luoyigou Village, adjacent to the Tangjiahe area of the Giant Panda National Park, a "Community Rolling Development Fund" has been established to support the villagers. Community economic cooperatives, beekeeping professional cooperatives, and fruit professional cooperatives have been established to help villagers develop characteristic agriculture and ecotourism that meet protection requirements.

Li Sheng, a researcher at the School of Life Sciences at Peking University, believes that the protection of giant pandas, from fragmented habitats to overall national parks, is a classic success story in global wildlife conservation, reflecting the effectiveness of ecological and biodiversity conservation in China.

video