The Importance Of Giant Pandas

Giant Pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) are an endangered species of large terrestrial mammal occupying about isolated areas of mountain forest (WWF, 2014a) in China. These forests are areas of high biodiversity and likely contain a wide variety of unknown species. It is, therefore, important to protect them. As a result of the ongoing conservation of Pandas, the habitat is relatively secure, gradually increasing and becoming less isolated due to new corridors (China’s Ministry of Forestry & WWF, 1989) between forests. “The provincial governments of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu, working closely with WWF, have been creating new nature reserves and extending existing reserves.” (WWF, 2014a). The geographical range of this species used to be a much

Another theory is that, if Pandas go extinct, the concept of modern day extinction may be put more into the public eye. This could create a domino effect of the advertisement of other famous species that are already on the brink of extinction such as Rhinos, Tigers and Polar Bears. People see the Giant Panda as the representative for many endangered species. If it goes, people listen and make a change. Climate change is having a serious effect on many species and we simply have to get used to it. We may just have to come to terms with the fact that the Panda won’t survive the future. Extinction is, after all, a natural part of life on Earth (The Guardian,

“In conservation terms it 's better to go for something further up the food chain, because then by definition you are protecting a much larger area, which in turn encompasses the smaller animals.” (The Guardian, 2009). Panda conservation has led to the protection of many new reserves containing a plethora of other animal and plant species. “The Chengdu Wolong National Nature Reserve, an enormous protected park of over 770 square miles. It 's home to 150 pandas, but also other rare creatures like the (unrelated) red panda, golden snub-nosed monkey, takin, snow leopard, and clouded leopard, along with untold numbers of rare plants and insects.” (Popular Science, 2013). If it is seen that WWF simply lets Pandas go extinct after all this effort, money and time spent, the Public may lose hope for conservation all together. This would jeopardise the future of the forests and the wildlife within them. It may even lead to great decreases in donations to nature conservation organisations and the loss of more endangered species and