Some welcome news came from China yesterday when it was announced that the 17th International Botanical Congress, which took place in Shenzhen City from July 23, 2017 to July 29, 2017, confirmed that the country is now building a national park for wild pandas to protect the connectivity of their various habitats.
As per China.com, the massive National Park that will be three times the size of Yellowstone National Park will be spread across the provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu.
Fantastic news for the estimated 1800 pandas that are still living in the wild in China, though troublesome for the approximately 170,000 people in Sichuan who must now move out of the region to establish the core protected area.
According to statistics from the provinces that were released in a China Daily article, the wild pandas have been separated into 33 local species among which 22 face the risk of extinction, especially 18 species that have less than 10 pandas left in each species.
Currently, two-thirds of wild pandas in China are living in 67 nature reserves that have been established for their protection, while 375 pandas are residing in 11 breeding centers throughout the country.
Pandas were downgraded from ‘Endangered’ to ‘Vulnerable’ on the global Red List of Threatened Species at risk of extinction by the The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in September of last year.
A big step in the right direction to protect the remaining vulnerable pandas in China.
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