At the World Conservation Congress in Hawaii this past weekend, the IUCN revealed that the improved status of giant pandas is a result of increased conservation efforts in China, where the animal is a national icon.
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Thanks to fantastic conservation efforts and the commitment of the Chinese government, this iconic species has dropped down a level on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, from “Endangered” to “Vulnerable” following a remarkable growth of their population. A nationwide census found that there are now 1,864 giant pandas in the wild in China, up from 1,596 in 2004. Thanks to an increase in available habitat, the population of giant pandas has witnessed a rebound over the past decade.
There’s good news regarding the world’s most vulnerable wildlife species: the giant panda has been reclassified from “Endangered” to “Vulnerable” on the global list of animals nearing extinction, WWF reports.
In the WWF statement, Director General Marco Lambertini said that the combined efforts of science, political will and engagement in the local communities have proven to save wildlife and to improve diversity.
Once poorly understood, the Giant Panda received an explosion of scientific interest across many disciplines in recent decades.
Other great apes – the western gorilla, Bornean orangutan and Sumatran orang-utan – now share the status of ‘Critically Endangered, ‘ while chimpanzees and bonobo are listed as ‘Endangered’.
The new classification of Eastern Gorillas follows a report from the Wildlife Conversation Society (WCS) and Fauna & Flora International which showed Grauer’s Gorilla’s incredible decline.
The warning over climate change was echoed by the IUCN, who warned that as much as 35 percent of the panda’s bamboo habitat could be damaged in the next 80 years.
With the WWF’s help, the Chinese government has worked to build 67 nature reserves for the pandas, protecting almost two-thirds of the animals.
The species lives in the forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, northwest Rwanda and southwest Uganda.
Poaching has been blamed as one of the main causes of the severe decrease in the number of gorillas in the wild.
The change will lead to neglect of conservation work, and previous gains will quickly disappear, an official at the forestry administration warned. The listing has put the gorilla species (eastern and western) as well as the other four subspecies as critically endangered, and near extinction.
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IUCN estimates that only 3,800 of Grauer’s gorilla now remain – a 77 percent drop in just 20 years.
