By
The Associated Press
GLAND, Switzerland - The giant panda - a symbol for endangered species across the planet - is still facing extinction because its mountain forest home is disappearing, the World Wildlife Fund said yesterday.
In a report to mark the WWF's 40th anniversary, the organization said loss of suitable habitat in China's Sichuan province was the major threat to the survival of the panda, which has a wild population of about 1,000.
"The only hope for the future of the giant panda is to balance the needs of humans and the needs of the panda," report co-author Elizabeth Kemf said.
"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," she said.
The 24-page report said it is simply not true that pandas were endangered because of an inability to breed easily.
Although pandas live longer in captivity - there were 126 in zoos in November 1999 - only 28 percent of them are breeding. In the wild, all adult pandas are reproductive. Therefore pandas should not be taken from the wild for the purpose of breeding, the report said.
It added that zoos that receive pandas "on loan" should plough back part of their earnings into panda conservation in China. In the United States alone, zoo earnings from on-loan pandas are estimated at $1 million per year.
A 1999 survey in one county in Sichuan province showed that the panda's habitat had shrunk by 30 percent in 12 years as forest areas were cleared for logging and agriculture.
"Habitat fragmentation is especially dangerous for pandas, as they must adjust to the life cycles of bamboos, which flower and die periodically," said Lu Zhi, co-author of the report and former coordinator of WWF's panda program.
"Small, isolated populations of giant pandas, whose diet consists almost entirely of various bamboo species found in high mountain areas, face a risk of inbreeding," Lu added.
"This could lead to reduced resistance to disease, less adaptability to environmental change and a decrease in reproductive rates," she said.
WWF, the first non-governmental organization allowed in China in 1980, is carrying out a "panda census" in conjunction with Chinese authorities and is supporting plans for a giant panda management plan in Sichuan.
WWF was set up in 1961 with the stated aim "to stop, and eventually reverse, the worsening degradation of the planet's natural environment, and build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature."
The group uses the panda as its emblem and on one of its website addresses. The symbol was based on sketches by Scottish naturalist George Watterson of Chi Chi, then the only panda in captivity in the West.
"Protecting a 'flagship' species such as the giant panda benefits more than the single species itself," the report said. "Conservation of this animal and its habitat provides protection for the whole community of wildlife that coexists with pandas, thus maintaining their entire ecosystem."
