China thrilled with increase in numbers of the wild giant panda

#giantpanda #sichuan #WWFChina As per the latest survey of wild giant pandas undertaken by China’s State Forestry Administration, it has been revealed that the animals are making a comeback in the country as reported in foxnews.com dated 28 February 2015.
The last census had been taken in 2003 and, now, the figure is much more – it has grown from only 268 in 2003 to 1864 now. Most of the Chinese panda population lives in the province of Sichuan – nearly 75% - while the balance live in Shaanxi and Gansu, which are near Sichuan.
In the opinion of Ginette Hemley, senior vice president of wildlife conservation for World Wildlife Fund, this rise in the population of wild giant pandas can be termed to be a victory for conservation. Credit for this should go to the Chinese government and its programs.
The survey has revealed that 1,246 wild giant pandas live within nature reserves and there are 67 of them in China – this is an increase of 27 since the last survey. Obviously, it can be concluded that the effectiveness of nature reserves in boosting wild giant panda numbers cannot be ignored.
Of course, there are threats - economic development in the regions are the main threat to future growth of the panda’s population because, as many as 319 hydropower stations and 832 miles of roads have been built in its natural habitat. This has been pointed out by Xiaohai Liu, executive program director for WWF-China.
Incidentally, the current census started in 2011 and took three years to complete.