(CN) Report says cloning or breeding in zoos is not a real alternative

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Giant pandas facing survival threat

 

Copyright 2001, Reuters

February 16, 2001

By Robert Evans

 

The black-and-white giant panda, found only in central China, faces a

growing threat to its survival as economic development destroys

its habitat and the bamboo on which it feeds, the conservation body WWF

International

said Thursday.

 

Only around 1,000 of the animals are believed to be left in the

wild, all in isolated groups in six separate mountain ranges where natural

forests are

being cleared as the human population grows and spreads, WWF said in a new

report.

 

" The only hope for the future of the giant panda is to balance

the needs of humans and the needs of the panda, " said Elizabeth Kemf, a

specialist on

endangered species at the World Wide Fund for Nature International.

 

" Giant pandas need vast areas of temperate mountain forests with lots of

bamboo, while people living in the vicinity of the animals need secure

sources of income and better livelihoods, " said Kemf.

 

The Chinese government, which has a major program for protecting

the animal, also needed help from other countries --where furry toy pandas

are a major

children's favorite - to preserve what it regards as a national treasure,

she added.The WWF, this year celebrating its 40th anniversary as a

non-governmental organization largely dependent on public

subscription, uses an image of the panda as its symbol.

 

The report, written by Kemf and Chinese expert Lu Zhi who for

years ran the WWF's panda preservation program in the country, said a

recent

pilot survey in one major panda area in Sichuan province showed the

animal's

range there had shrunk by 30 percent since the end of the 1980s.

 

The breakup of panda habitat into isolated pockets was especially

dangerous for the animal, which had to adjust to the life cycle of bamboo,

a plant

flowering and dying periodically.

 

Lu said another major threat arising as populations were cut off from each

other came from inbreeding, which cut their resistance to disease and

lowered reproductive rates --potentially disastrous for a species where

females give birth only once every two or three years.

 

A further danger came from poaching, banned by the Chinese government and

punished by death until 1997 but still practiced, as well as accidental

snaring in traps set for other animals.

 

The report said there was a conflict between conservation and economic

development, despite progress in China in nature protection efforts and

legislation, because conservation was not seen as a high priority

and nature reserves lacked funding.

 

Resentment was also created in many areas where reserves were set

up without consultation and local people found their access to traditional

grazing land and forests restricted, while outside reserve development

activities were

often undertaken with no consideration for wildlife needs.

 

" Conservation is hampered by an overwhelming emphasis on economic

development and deficiencies in the government's approach, " the WWF said.

 

The report said cloning or breeding in zoos was not a real alternative to

preserving the animal in the wild.

 

In captivity - mainly in zoos around the world where the animal is a major

attraction - only 28 percent of adult pandas were breeding,

whereas surveys in recent years showed that in the wild all adults, male

and female, were

sexually active.