This is some really awesome news! I just can’t move a smile from my face since Sunday when the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced that the Giant panda has been removed from the endangered species list.
It seems that population of Giant pandas has grown in the last decade. Their status was changed from ‘endangered’ to ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In numbers, that grow is 17% more pandas in 2014 than it was 10 years earlier in 2004. This didn’t happen by the chance, but thanks to a great effort of China’s government.
Chronologically, their strategical moves in solving Giant panda’s problem look like this: In 1981, the government banned the trading of panda skins; in 1988, enacted a law banning poaching and giving the animal the highest protected status; in 1992, a panda reserve system was made, which now includes 67 reserves that span nearly 1.5 million hectares of habitat (home to two-thirds of all pandas in the wild). Really impressive work which gave the results finally!
And that’s not the end. There is a lot of to be done yet. It is estimated that in next 80 years a 35% of Giant panda’s bamboo habitat could be destroyed by the effects of climate change, which puts 1864 pandas in danger. We hope the China’s government will find a successful solution for this problem as well.
“The recovery of the panda shows that when science, political will and engagement of local communities come together, we can save wildlife and also improve biodiversity,” said Marco Lambertini, WWF Director General.
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