History of Giant Panda Diplomacy

According to historical account, back in 685 A.D. in Tang Dynasty, Empress Wu Zetian sent a pair of pandas to the Japanese emperor Temmu, which hailed the very beginning of panda diplomacy. After 1949, panda diplomacy has turned into three phases: national gift, commercial demonstration, and scientific exchange.

• From 1957-1982, there were in total 23 giant pandas, in the name of "ambassadors of peace", sent to nine countries respectively, including the USSR, Korea, the United States, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico and Spain, serving as national gifts for furtherance of respective bilateral relations.
• In 1982, to conserve the endangered giant panda population and to entrench China's sovereignty, China no longer sent giant pandas abroad as gifts. Instead, China began to receive mountainous of applications for short-term giant panda loans on commercial terms. The World Wildlife Found ("WWF"), the International Union for Conservation of Nature, as well as other international or national conservation organizations, realized that such commercial loans will not only affect the breeding and reproduction programs of giant pandas in captivity; they can lead to unintended encouragement of hunting wildlife giant pandas by benefiting hunters of them. Due to active interventions by such organizations, China in 1988 ceased such commercial loans of giant pandas.
• Afterwards, through negotiations among the China Wildlife Conservation Association, the China Zoo Association and international organizations, a basic protocol was set forth with respect to sending giant pandas overseas for scientific exchange. China would send out a pair of giant pandas with reproductive capacities to residential countries, have them stayed there for cooperative researches. Up to 2006, 31 giant pandas have been sent to 11 zoos, located in six countries, including the United States, Japan, Mexico, Germany, Austria, and Thailand, for participation in cooperative research projects held there.

Conservation of Wildlife Giant Pandas

Due to deforestation, reclaiming and cultivation, transportation development and other human activity disturbance, giant pandas' natural habitats have hugely declined and fragmented as early surviving giant pandas can still be found in origins and upstream branches of Yangtze River, the six slice areas of transit slopes on the east rim of Tibetan Plateau facing Sichuan Basin. These areas include the mountain chains of Mountain Min, Mountain Qilai, Mountain Liang, Daxiangling Mountains, Xiaoxiangling Mountains, and Qingling Mountains. That individual giant pandas are forced to live in fragmented areas has made matters worse for the survivorship of a species that is already difficult in estrous, mating and breeding. The number of giant pandas once declined to less than 1,000.

In 1979, the WWF launched giant panda projects and provide funding for conservation of giant pandas. The WWF even uses the logo of giant panda as the emblem of the foundation, so as to demonstrate its mission of conserving giant pandas and other endangered species.

In 1988, China officially announced "Wildlife Animal Protection Act", and the Forestry Ministry and Agriculture Ministry in their joint announcement afterwards classified giant panda as the National First Class Protected Animal. After the first survey conducted, aside from Wolong Natural Reserve, there are giant panda reserves set up, such as River Tangjia at Qingchuan, Jiuzhaigou at Jiuzhaigou County, Xiaozhaizigou of River Bei, Fengtongzhai at Baoxing, Dafengding at Mabian, Foping at Fopingxian, River Baishui at Wen County. These reserves total 6,444.9 square kilometers in area. The WWF and China made a joint announcement in 1993 for a ten-year giant panda conservation strategy, in view of raising conservatory fund for establishment of reserves and relevant operation and management. The conservation strategy, while setting wildlife habitat conservation as the first priority, also emphasizes on the research and education of captive individual giant pandas, which includes scientific management, establishment of certified pedigrees, basic biological and reproductive researches. Currently, the number of reserves that provide a relatively safe refuge has increased from 13 to 50, which amounts to 10,400 square kilometers in area. Meanwhile, five giant panda ecological corridors have been established.

As a matter of fact, the stoppage of deforestation and the establishment of reserves will not only benefit the survivorship of wildlife giant pandas, but also species such as snub-nosed monkeys, antelopes, red pandas, Chinese monals, Temminck's Tragopans and other sympatric species. According to the latest survey, wildlife giant pandas have increased to over 1,600.

The earthquake in Sichuan on May 12, 2008 has made unprecedented impact on the conservation of giant pandas in their original habitats. It remains unclear how many wild giant pandas were in loss in this earthquake. This earthquake demonstrates that captive giant pandas raised in dispersive places are vital to the safety of species.

Conservatory Value of Captive Giant Pandas

Given that the wildlife animals' natural habitats are being destructed, the role of ex-situ conservations played by zoos are all the more important. Species such as Mongolian Wild Horse, Arabian Oryx, Pere David's deer, black-footed ferret, California Condor, were once extinct in wildlife. They are now successful cases that have undergone conservatory breeding and reproduction in the zoo, then reintroduced into the wildness.

All zoos that have giant pandas in captivity are making their own contributions to conservation of giant pandas.