The State Forestry and Grassland Administration recently announced that the total wild population of giant pandas in my country has increased from about 1,100 in the 1980s to nearly 1,900, and the number of captive pandas worldwide has reached 728, achieving habitat protection for giant pandas. The area and wild population have "double growth".

The naive giant panda is China’s “national treasure” is also loved by people around the world. Chengdu is an important habitat for giant pandas. In terms of wild giant panda habitat protection, according to the fourth giant panda census data, there are 73 wild giant pandas active in the Chengdu area of ​​the Giant Panda National Park all year round, accounting for 10% of the wild giant pandas in the national park. 4% of quantity.

Based on the establishment of the national park, what effective giant panda protection efforts are there in Chengdu? And how to use giant pandas to "protect" other rare wild animals and plants?

Let the "isolated islands" be connected into one piece

The first batch of artificial restorations has been accepted

In October 2021, the Giant Panda National Park was officially established. Among them, the Chengdu area of ​​the Giant Panda National Park involves four counties (cities): Dujiangyan City, Pengzhou City, Chongzhou City, and Dayi County.

When it was first established, the most serious problem faced by the Giant Panda National Park was the severe fragmentation of the giant panda’s habitat. In order to connect the "islands" one by one, it is necessary to build a complete ecological corridor of giant panda habitats.

In this process, giant panda habitat restoration is a key part. At present, giant panda habitat restoration in the Chengdu area is carried out based on the principle of natural restoration as the mainstay and artificial restoration as a supplement. Just last year, the Chengdu area carried out the first artificial restoration of habitats. Construction was carried out at Dujiangyan Changheba, Dayi Huoshixi, Chongzhou Baliping and other points, and the acceptance was completed before December.

At present, artificial restoration is mainly aimed at some key ecologically fragile areas, using methods such as enclosure, afforestation, low-efficiency forest transformation, and forest species renewal to improve the exposed land, vegetation destruction, and high density in the giant panda habitat. Issues such as artificial pure forests and forest degradation.

“For the entire giant panda habitat restoration work, it plays the role of threading the needle and focusing on repairs.” The relevant person in charge of the Chengdu Panda Branch said that in the future, artificial restoration will continue to drive the natural restoration of the ecosystem. , and consider appropriately combining ecological landscape effects, appropriately integrating into coordinated community development, nature education, ecological experience and other work needs to promote the improvement of giant panda habitat quality, ensure the health and stability of the ecosystem, and promote sustainable utilization and value realization.

Let scientific research help protection

Promote the construction of ecological intelligent monitoring network system

Giant pandas play in the snow, snow leopards travel in the mountains, takin drink from the shore... In recent years, rare wild animals living in the Chengdu area of ​​the Giant Panda National Park have Plants frequently send "video connections" with citizens and friends living in urban areas.

This is due to the infrared cameras deployed in the Chengdu area that capture the traces of animals. This year, a batch of smart infrared cameras that can transmit infrared triggered image data in real time were installed through self-organizing network technology. These cameras have also been expanded with infrared sensors, temperature, humidity and pressure, air quality, altitude, longitude and latitude sensors, and can collect a variety of environmental information. At the same time, in order to reduce human interference, electronic fences will be implemented, targeted text message pilots will be carried out, and functions such as text message reminders for entering core protected areas will be implemented.

Scientific research supports the further advancement of giant panda protection. The Chengdu area has also carried out seven scientific research projects in various fields, including monitoring wild giant panda epidemics, improving wildlife rescue capabilities, establishing a DNA genetic resource library for wild giant pandas, and transforming artificial low-efficiency forests.

The advancement of the project requires the support of the scientific research team. For the Chengdu area, we will continue to deepen the long-term cooperation mechanism with universities and scientific research institutions such as Tsinghua University, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sichuan University, Central University of Finance and Economics, and Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base.

In what specific areas will cooperation be carried out? The reporter learned that the Chengdu area will jointly carry out long-term research on giant panda protection, giant panda habitat restoration and investigation and monitoring, biodiversity research, and epidemic source and disease monitoring.

Let protection be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people

Set up nearly a thousand ecological public welfare posts

The Chengdu area, located in the middle of the Giant Panda National Park, faces large terrain fluctuations. Problems such as insufficient patrol manpower allocation. Recruiting patrol personnel from outside will not be familiar with the terrain; recruiting experienced and experienced personnel from within will inevitably be too busy.

The Chengdu area of ​​the Giant Panda National Park has come up with a solution: mobilize local residents to become "guardians." In 2022 and 2023, 322 and 600 ecological management and protection public welfare positions will be provided to community residents in the Chengdu area, and local residents will be hired to participate in patrol monitoring, collective resource ecological management and protection, forest fire prevention and conservation publicity in the Chengdu area of ​​the Giant Panda National Park. Guidance and other public welfare work.

Carry out a series of nature education activities such as "Citizen Scientists" and "Panda Secret Realm Exploration"; connect with Chengdu Museum, Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, Chengdu Botanical Garden, Chengdu Zoo and other city museums to jointly plan and organize Public activities...at the same time, attract citizens to enter the Chengdu area's ecological experience venues and strengthen their awareness of ecological protection.

It is worth mentioning that in recent years, the Chengdu Panda Branch has continued to deepen the wildlife accident compensation mechanism, purchased wildlife accident compensation insurance for more than 60,000 residents in the area, and regularly carried out early warning and monitoring of wild animal damage. It also releases early warning information to the community in real time, and promptly guides indigenous people to make claims for damage caused by wild animals, further enhancing the sense of belonging and gain of indigenous people participating in the construction of the Giant Panda National Park.