Policy Forum on Ecology: Giant pandas in a changing landscape
Author(s)
Loucks, C. J.; Lue, Zhi; Dinerstein, E.; Wang, Hao; Olson, D. M.; Zhu, Chunquan; Wang, Dajun
Abstract
The giant panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca should be a conservation success story as the world’s most widely recognized conservation icon, with a protected area network of 33 nature reserves, and an improved captive breeding program. Yet, habitat loss and fragmentation continue to threaten its future. China’s estimated 1100 wild giant pandas survive in only a fraction of their historic range. Human land use has restricted the species to approximately 24 montane forest populations at the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The pandas’ future in China’s forests depends on increased protection and restoration of corridors among remaining forest fragments and increased habitat protection. The Chinese government has recently instituted policies that could have profound positive or negative effects on the forests that pandas need to survive. In the Wolong Nature Reserve, the three subpopulations of 30 to 45 pandas have more than a 10-fold chance of extinction by 2100 if they remain isolated from each other. Most of China’s 24 fragmented panda populations have fewer than 50 individuals, too few to be viable over the long term. Thus, if habitat loss and fragmentation confine pandas to existing nature reserves, many populations will face extinction through inbreeding depression and demographic inviability.
