Lin Wei – What Needs to be Done? (by WWF)

Hello,

So basically I came across this website while doing research. It has quite a bit of information which was not mentioned in most of our previous posts, so I thought that it would be good to share with you guys about this website. My main focus would be ‘What Needs to be Done’, since other topics have already been mentioned and highlighted several times, each time with more detailed information, of course.

So as usual, this is a summary of the article and some of my thoughts after reading this article:

-Habitat Restoration

One of the few factors that lead to the decline in the panda’s population is due to a loss in habitat, hence, much efforts have been put in to restore their habitat, in hopes that this would help the panda’s population to increase, instead of decline. In order to carry this out, and bring the best out of this, an ongoing panda survey has been done to understand their current population and its fragmentation (as mentioned by Zhou Zhou in her previous post). In addition, with the survey being done, they would be able to better understand where would be the best place for the pandas to be located. Lastly, they are also hoping that they would be able to close up this fragmentation, to provide more protection by building new corridors or expanding the panda’s habitat.

In my opinion, this method would be quite useful and efficient as it allows panda to have more protection, preventing them from being attacked by predators. With a habitat restoration, it also means more space being built, meaning that there would possibly be more bamboos for the panda, hence, chances of panda’s death due to malnutrition would be reduced. However, this may not be the most efficient method as the panda’s habitat and people working or living nearby may be affected some way or the other during this period of time and this process is also time consuming. Moreover, there are not many predators, preying on pandas.

-Population recovery and management

With a habitat restoration, more pandas would be linked together, allowing them to reproduce, increasing their population.

-Anti-Poaching

Although much efforts have been put into preventing poaching, however, the pressure of poaching is continuous. Once the efforts of anti-poaching is reduced, poaching activities would continue. Hence, continuous efforts have to be put in.

I feel that anti-poaching is vital in ensuring that panda’s population would not be put into danger of a rapid decline. Imagine how many pandas would there be left if 3 pandas are being poached every day, in half a year about one-third of the panda’s population would be gone.

-Monitoring, Scientific research and Database for Better Decisions

By monitoring, having scientific research and database, when staffs in Sichuan are making decisions, they would be more orientated and effective as they would be more certain and assured.

-Strengthening existing panda reserves and protection areas

In China, nature reserves are not managed according to conservation objectives, resulting in financial shortage. Hence, budgets would be made in order to save money; however, this leads to activities planned to be not in place. Thus, objectives are not met. Therefore, WWF provides guidance in managing of conservations to the Chinese government.

-Training more qualified conservation staff

There has been an increase in projects for panda’s conservation, thus, more staff are needed. They are trained with different types of training in both short and long term. This ensures sustainability.

In my opinion, this is essential as it allows projects to be carried out more successfully as they have a better knowledge of pandas and their needs.

-A new national panda action plan

As the decades pass, more information, opportunities and challenges of pandas are faced, thus, the need for a new plan is necessary to cater to all these needs, allowing the conservation to be successful.

-Participatory Conservation Approach

Many might have complained that we should not be putting in so much efforts in conserving pandas (an example can be seen from Zhou Zhou’s previous post), as it requires a lot of effort and we don’t gain much from it in return, especially in economy wise. However, by allowing local people benefit from this conservation, would encourage more people to help out in this conservation and also raise awareness.

Source:  http://www.wwfchina.org/english/loca.php?loca=17

Apologies for such a long summary + thoughts.