Attempts to protection the giant panda is proving counter-productive in China鈥檚 premier panda reserve.
A new study finds that destruction of the best panda habitat inside the Wolong reserve in Sichuan is happening four times faster than before the creation of the reserve 26 years ago.
Bizarrely, the study also finds that ecological decline inside the reserve is greater than in similar mountain forests immediately outside. One reason, it says, is the 50,000 tourists who come to the reserve each year to see the giant pandas.
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Wolong may contain 10 per cent of the world鈥檚 surviving population of giant pandas, which now number fewer than 1000.
Dramatic fragmentation
鈥淚ts ecological fate represents the success or failure of tremendous conservation efforts,鈥� says Jianguo Liu of Michigan State University, who headed the analysis of satellite images of the reserve. Unfortunately, so far, it represents failure.
After the creation of the reserve, 鈥渞ates of habitat loss and fragmentation unexpectedly and dramatically increased to levels that were similar to or higher than those outside,鈥� Liu reports.
Wolong is by Chinese standards well-funded, with cash from international partners such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Karen Baragona, a panda specialist at the WWF in Washington DC, defended the organisation鈥檚 continued support for eco-tourism in panda reserves.
鈥淭ourism generates revenue for reserves, but we know it has to be handled very carefully,鈥� she said. Next month the first British tourists will be visiting a new WWF-funded 50-bed tourist lodge in another Sichuan panda reserve, Wanglang.
Souvenirs and shops
There has been no giant panda census in the Wolong reserve since 1986, but the population is thought to have halved since 1974.
Meanwhile the population of people living inside the reserve has risen sharply. This is partly because local ethnic minorities are not covered by China鈥檚 strict one-child birth control policies, says Liu.
But the prime cause of the destruction is the influx of tens of thousands of tourists. 鈥淭ourists don鈥檛 see themselves as a destructive force, but they are 鈥� even eco-tourists,鈥� he says. The locals plunder natural resources, especially timber, mainly to meet tourist demands for food, heat, shelter and souvenirs.
More at: Science (vol 292, p 98)
