Every so often - sometimes once in ten years, sometimes once a century - the bamboo flowers en masse, dies back and takes years for the seedlings to mature. This phenomenon, coupled with land encroachment, leaves the panda helpless and starving.

It is also a solitary animal, which means that it breeds infrequently - a process not helped by the fact that the female is on heat for a mere three days.


Current threats & problems

The panda shares its habitat with a variety of species which are extremely valuable to hunters supplying the booming medicinal trade in South-east Asia. Deer antlers, bear gall and musk deer pods are sought by poachers who litter the mountainsides with wire snares, some of which trap the panda. Even though trading in panda skins carries the death penalty in China, this rare and secretive animal is prized by collectors for its skin.

Between 1974 and 1988, the panda's mountainous bamboo habitat has shrunk by half. Agriculture, logging and China's huge population increase have taken their toll.


What WWF is doing

The Shaanxi provincial government, in partnership with WWF - the first conservation organisation ever to work in China - initiated the creation of five new panda reserves and five forested "corridors" (so that pandas can move from one feeding area to another in order to reduce the risk of in-breeding) that re-link key panda habitats in April 2003. Across China there are now 40 panda reserves - protected areas for pandas - compared to 13 two decades ago.

The focus of WWF' s involvement remains in the forefront of panda conservation: we finance the training of local rangers to combat poaching activities and we assist with the implementation of the government's plan.

The Chinese authorities are interested in loaning pandas to foreign zoos, thereby generating millions of dollars. While WWF is opposed to short-term loans, it believes that long-term breeding loans may benefit panda conservation, provided they are part of an integrated international captive breeding programme designed to complement conservation in the wild.

Since 1980, WWF has worked with the Chinese government and spent £2.6 million on panda projects. Scientists, managers and guards have been trained and equipped to protect the panda and its precious habitat. WWF has also helped build the research laboratory and captive breeding centre at Wolong, China's largest reserve. Captive breeding is continuing with the aim of releasing pandas into the wild, but as yet success is limited.