Glyn Davies, executive director of global programmes at WWF-UK, said: “It is a significant conservation success following years of enormous efforts on the part of the Chinese Government, communities and NGOs”.
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Over the past decade numbers have risen by almost 17 per cent in the wild and there are now around 2,000 outside of captivity.
The wild giant panda population is fragmented into 33 isolated groups, with some having fewer than 10 animals, which limits the gene pool for reproduction.
The World Wildlife Fund, which is represented by a panda logo, said the announcement was “a welcome piece of good news for the world’s threatened wildlife”.
The IUCN Red List now includes 82,954 species of which 23,928 are threatened with extinction.
While the future still looks bleak for pandas, it’s not the first time it has appeared this way.
After decades of work, it is clear that only a holistic approach will be able to secure the long-term survival of China’s giant pandas and their unique habitat.
The latest census in 2014 found that there were 1,864 giant pandas alive in the wild.
“It is too early to conclude that pandas are actually increasing in the wild-perhaps we are simply getting better at counting wild pandas”, said arc Brody, senior adviser for conservation and sustainable development at China’s Wolong Nature Reserve.
The improved status confirms that the Chinese government’s reforestation and forest protection efforts are working, the IUCN said.
The change in status is largely credited to intensive conservation efforts by China, where the Giant Panda is native.
The Gorillas, which live in the mountainous forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda, are now believed to number less than 5,000 globally, and as a result, have been downgraded from “endangered” to “critically endangered” by the conservation group. However, the IUCN also notes that climate change will likely eliminate over 35% of panda habitats in the next 80 years, potentially reversing the progress made in the past two decades.
He also remarked that the fact that the animal, which became a symbol of the organization he presides over, is now one step further from extinction is “an exciting moment for everyone committed to conserving the world’s wildlife and their habitats”.
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This brings four out of a total of six great ape species under threat of extinction.
