Nature Reserves is the most Direct Way to Save Populations

Unfortunately, the serious fact is the earth is facing a mass of extinction of species. Many species in the world are getting away from us with the rapid development of the society and the crazy expand of human activities. There are around 150-200 species going to extinct every 24 hours (Vidal, 2011). This rate of extinction has never been experienced by the earth since 65 million years ago when dinosaurs died out (Vidal, 2011). As the development of human activities and social economy, the degree of habitat fragmentation has been aggravated, leading negative interference on the population, reproduction, survival and food resources of giant pandas (Ma, Lei, Qing, & Wen, 2018; Pkl, 2018). In China, giant pandas are regarded as the “national treasure”, but they are in the list of vulnerable animals now. Their extremely low birth rate of breeding is one of the reasons, but what is more serious is that deforestation caused by frequent human activities and expansion of farmlands makes their habitat into fragmentation. This action disturbed their daily life, deprived the living space and reduced their bamboo food source. People, not only in China but also around the world, will face the possibility of losing Chinese “national treasure” and the invocatable decrease in biodiversity which may lead to the unbalance of the entire ecosystem. The organization called World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) worked on 6 fields, which are forests, marine, freshwater, wildlife, food and climate, with people to protect the earth. It was found in 1961 as an international organization. National Geographic Society (NGS) started exploring the planet and working on promotion of environmental and conservation problem since it was founded in 1888. It headquartered in Washington, D.C. and is one of the largest nonprofit organizations. This paper aims to describe, critique, and provide potential improvements to two solutions to save vulnerable giant pandas in China, given by WWF: setting up natural reserves, and by NGS: conducting conservation breeding program for giant pandas.

Setting up natural reserves

One solution suggested by WWF is setting up natural reserves which can greatly improve the living condition and provide them with thoughtful care. “The creation of nature reserves is the most direct way to save endangered species populations and their habitat” (Guan, et al., 2016). In the last decade, the population of wild giant pandas has increased almost one fifth, according to a new survey given by the Chinese government (Omer, 2015). Reserves provide giant pandas with sufficient bamboo, as well as corridors for migrations between protected areas and patrol the reserves to control poaching and logging. When giant pandas are received in natural reserves: doctors and nurses will treat the sick or injured giant pandas timely; breeders and dietician will ensure the nutritious and balanced diet; cleaners will offer giant pandas a comfortable environment to live in. With the regulated behaviors of people in natural reserves and 24-hour care by these professional workers, natural reserves are going to be the paradise for pandas.

However, many of natural reserves for giant pandas are lack of connection because of the obstacle triggered by physical factors, and the availability of acceptable habitats can be relatively low for those limitation (Guan, et al., 2016; Li, et al., 2017). This problem causes habitat loss induced by contrived disturbances, and the fact that a considerable part of giant panda habitat is located outside the coverage of the natural reserve network (Guan, et al., 2016). Protection areas separate the giant pandas, causing them unable to choose to go back to the wild or into the natural reserves. In this situation, the giant pandas in the wild cannot set up relationships with ones in the natural reserves, which may lead to the distinct characteristic on lifestyle, mate choice and reproduction in the long run. Due to the disassociation between natural reserves, the number of pandas that we can help is still a limited amount, and it is hard for them to interact with each other.

To improve this situation, scientists suggests when choosing the exact place which contiguous with a protected area to determine their suitability for natural reserves, people should be careful when picking the location. For example, “the increase in giant panda occurrences and in the concentration of high intensity utilization areas within the corridor between Wolong and Caopo indicate that this area may have facilitated giant panda dispersal or movement between the reserves” (Guan, et al., 2016). Thus, if the locations are picked appropriately, being connected with another large area of accessible habitat, the efficiency of the natural reserves can be improved to a great extent. It will provide valuable effort to the protection of giant pandas and promote the immigration. By this measurement, the standard for the natural reserves cannot only be applied to saving giant pandas, but also to the management and protection of similar cases for other endangered species.

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