Wildlife groups hail the Giant Panda's revival

http://youtu.be/lxIvVXpfxMI/<br>
36 Seconds Euro News

http://www.euronews.com/2016/09/05/wildlife-groups-hail-the-giant-panda-s-revival/

For half a century the Giant Panda has been a symbol of global attempts to preserve wildlife. Now there are signs that efforts to protect the iconic bears are showing some rewards.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has reported that the species is no longer “Endangered” – although the animals are still classed as “Vulnerable” in the organisation’s updated Red List. The number of pandas in the wild in southern China has grown significantly this century: up to 1,864 in 2014 from 1,596 a decade earlier, according to official figures.

Chinese agencies are credited for their work in protecting forests and stamping out poaching. However, the good news comes with a warning that climate change could reverse the pandas’ fortunes in decades to come.

And while panda numbers have recovered, the IUCN also warns that in contrast, four out of six great ape species are now “Critically Endangered”.

Good news for the Giant Panda. The population has grown – conservation
action works! https://t.co/Yn2uTcEWhJ pic.twitter.com/7ml13vAYgw
— IUCN Red List (@IUCNRedList) September 4, 2016


Breaking news!
Thanks to amazing conservation efforts the giant panda is no longer classified as endangered IUCN</a> <a href="https://t.co/kwVZWF9olC">pic.twitter.com/kwVZWF9olC</a></p>&mdash; WWF UK (wwf_uk) September 4, 2016

Wildlife organisations hailed the recovery of the Giant Panda, whose estimated numbers fell to below 1,000 in the 1980s. International groups and the Chinese government have worked to save them in the wild and breed them – often in the face of criticism that the huge costs could have been better spent on saving other animals.

“The recovery of the panda shows that when science, political will, and the engagement of local communities come together, we can save wildlife and also improve biodiversity,” said the Director General of the World Wildlife Fund, Marco Lambertini, in a WWF news release. The organisation’s logo is the panda and it has long worked with the Chinese government to save the animals and their habitat. The WWF says the 67 panda reserves in the country now protect nearly two-thirds of all wild pandas.

However there are estimated to be fewer than 2,000 individuals overall, and wildlife organisations warn that the Giant Panda is not out of the woods yet. Climate change is predicted to destroy more than a third of the panda’s bamboo habitat in the next 80 years, leading to a decline in numbers and a reversal of the gains made over the past two decades.

The IUCN says that to protect pandas in the wild in future, it is critical that effective forest protection measures are continued and emerging threats are addressed.

The news of the improvement in the species’ status comes after the birth, in captivity, of a set of panda twins in the USA. A Giant Panda named Lun Lu delivered the twin cubs on Saturday (September 3).

19-year-old giant panda Lun Lun gives birth to set of twins at Atlanta Zoo https://t.co/VXEmqOYfI3 pic.twitter.com/Wycdn9az07
— ABC News (@ABC) September 4, 2016

Highlighting the plight of the great apes, the organisation says the Eastern Gorilla has moved from “Endangered” to “Critically Endangered” due to a “devastating population decline of more than 70 percent in 20 years”, primarily due to illegal hunting. Three other species of great ape – the Western Gorilla, Bornean Orangutan and Sumatran Orangutan – are also now listed as “Critically Endangered”. The Chimpanzee and the Bonobo are both listed as “Endangered”.

Eastern Gorillas – made up of two subspecies, Grauer’s gorillas and mountain gorillas – are found in the rainforests of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Mountain gorilla numbers have rallied, although fewer than 1,000 remain, but Grauer’s gorillas now total fewer than 4,000 compared to around 20,000 in the 1980s.

“To see the Eastern Gorilla – one of our closest cousins – slide towards extinction is truly distressing,” said IUCN Director General Inger Andersen.

Eastern Gorilla, largest primate, Critically
Endangered, IUCN Red List update #IUCNCongress https://t.co/Yn2uTcnkT9 pic.twitter.com/Of2PFlLPyP
— IUCN Red List (@IUCNRedList) September 4, 2016

you missed some of the story... the progressive liberals said that, just to make themselves look good... china does not agree, and wants them to remain endangered..

i was going to post the article i read that on, but it was deleted already...

liberal news at it's finest...

Bravo China! All those years of expense & effort.. & devotion

You did it

Oh really?

Well.. if China does not agree.
Then IMO it is their call & only their's

This reads to me as more or less, a report that since positive efforts were made, that they have had some success. I see it as more of a signpost than a final word.

Also, in order to recognize what this is about, we need to know more details, which as usual, the half-minute-journalism style reporting doesn't include.

Specifically, what does this designation actually mean to each party involved?

I am certain that it means different things to the IUCN than it does to the Chinese government. It certainly means different things to differently politically motivated people here, as can be seen in the posts already responding.

I SUSPECT, but can't prove (since no reporting either way is available) that the purpose of the IUCN making this announcement, is to encourage more to be done, by telling us that the efforts to date have been working. That is, their interest is in promoting more efforts to preserve and protect, not to end them.

I suspect the Chinese want to keep the Endangered designation, at least in part, because it affords them more support from outside China to do so.

The political motivations of other commentators are clearly unrelated to the Pandas themselves.

I suspect that the IUCN also did this as a way to explain why they are shifting their limited resources partially away from Pandas.

But again, since the reporting is incomplete, we don't really know.

Personally, I don't find that three hundred more Pandas than before, isn't a significant number. But I'm not a trained zoologist, so they might know what they are talking about.

i agree, they made great progress, but still more needs to be made... i don't see china wanting them endangered as political, but moreso as a helpful way to keep the Chinese villagers from killing them. China has a unique history of reasons why they kill animals, for food, aphrodisiacs, and medicinal reasons...

Personally, I don't find that three hundred more Pandas than before, isn't a significant number. But I'm not a trained zoologist, so they might know what they are talking about.

I don't think, 300 more is a significant number.
I hate it that the " Global warming & Climate Change", is conveniently injected into so many topics.

It is brainwashing.. I tell ya!

But seriously, these animals are not (totally), living in the wild. And I don't see how they ever can, no matter how many.
They eat an enormous about of bamboo.
That is a hell of a lot of land.
With China being the most populated (then India, then USA), NO WAY. For any animal... love them on not.

HUMANS FIRST.

it's an ecosystem, humans can't survive without other animals... there has to be a balance, not just humans first...

I meant... not at our own expense.

Like packing people into cities, like sardines & give animals fenced in land.
Lots out there on that agenda. Especially tbe West Coast ( stack & pack- apartments, built without garages & parking lots), next to fenced in Goverment land... for animals.
I am NOT liking this idea... but, they kedp bringing more people.
Americans are NOT breeding & increasing.
Our " Houseguests" * cough* are increasing. And... they are NOT women.


Don't get me started... hhhaaa.. too late

well, i agree... we can always use more women...

Bravo. Plus one.

Americans are not breeding and increasing. come to my county. they are going to have to put additions on the maternity wards. and that's all I'm going to say about these woman here.

I hear you. I agree with you. I did a thread on it. Most missed the point or didn't read the stats or are too PC or too affraid of being called names so didn't post.
Frustrating .. isn't it.
" Rhetorical *