China creates more reserves for pandas

The conservation of giant pandas is to be given a boost with extensive new reserves set aside for the animals, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) will announce today.

The Chinese government says it will almost double the protected areas for giant pandas in central China's Qinling mountains by creating five new reserves and five panda "corridors" in the area.

The Qinling mountains are the natural division between north and south China. The range is home to approximately 20 per cent of the estimated 1,200 giant pandas still living in the wild. The initiative will increase the total protected area in Qinling from 184,000ha (497,000 acres) to more than 334,000ha.

The five "corridors" – zones that link the protected areas and allow fragmented populations of pandas to cross from one protected area to another – will also help the pandas move about unhindered. Because human land use has restricted many populations of pandas to fewer than 50 individuals, movement is crucially important if the threat of inbreeding is to be reduced.

WWF, which has the panda as its symbol, has played a leading role in panda conservation as the Chinese government's international partner.

Stuart Chapman, head of the WWF Species Programme, said: "The creation of these 'panda highways' is essential if the species is to survive in the long term. This is the first of what we hope will be many corridors that will link up the panda populations living on isolated mountain tops. This is a real lifeline to pandas, which will help encourage a mixing of the gene pool."