The world’s most lovable animal, the Giant Panda, has been taken off the Endangered List however threats to them still prevail.
Over the summer, the Giant Panda National Park Administration came out with a statement that due to the people’s efforts, they have successfully built a park for Pandas to thrive in.
Pandas have been on the endangered list since 1990 due to excessive poaching in the ’80s and the damage done to their main source of food, bamboo. With climate change, bamboo has been at risk as a direct result of deforestation. It is found that when a certain species are at risk for extinction or endangerment, more times than often their ecosystem is failing.
The ESA is also known as the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 to save animals from endangerment. They have successfully helped, the bald eagle, the California sea otter, and the gray wolf. According to the ESA:
Each species that is lost, triggers the loss of other species within its ecosystem. Humans depend on healthy ecosystems to purify our environment. Without healthy forests, grasslands, rivers, oceans and other ecosystems, we will not have clean air, water, or land.
ESA
As a result, when one species is endangered it affects other species too because some of them rely on others for survival, therefore, affecting the environment as a whole. More than 85% of the world’s population has been affected by deforestation since it clears ecosystems of all its trees and plants. Such as natural medication and food. Some countries aren’t able to go to the nearest drug store and pick up a prescription of Tylenol, instead, they have to use herbs. This also releases greenhouse gasses and causes the dehydration of crops in which people or animals aren’t able to survive.
Deforestation has not only affected us but also animals. This might also be a cause as to why animals become endangered. Due to the damage done to the environment, food sources are drying out and many animals starve while other changes to their habitat force them to leave and try to adapt to a new one. Pandas have a harder time than any other animal adapting to a new environment since they rely on places filled with bamboo and a wet cold climate.
Since 2016, the World Conservation Union announced that they would be working on the conservation of pandas by changing their status from endangered to not endangered. Here they proposed the plan to build a national forest that would protect China’s most loveable animal. After it proved successful they concluded that there is still a lot of work to be done to save the species once and for all.
The new giant panda national park has “an area of 27,134 square kilometers, and spans over three provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi, with about 74 percent of the area in Southwest China’s Sichuan province alone ”. It holds over 1,000 pandas which are about 70% of the panda population in the whole world.
It is estimated the park is two times the size of Yellowstone providing the pandas with enough space to roam and be with pandas. As said before they are still working to make this park the best they can to provide a safe habitat for the pandas, therefore the park will be finished by 2023.
While this did cost roughly 10 billion yuan, it is worth it since it is better to solve this issue now and not later when the chance to take action is gone.
As a result, the people’s efforts to save these lovable creatures and many others have helped the environment greatly and also has inspired others to contribute. Proving that together we can save the planet one step at a time before it is too late.