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The num­ber of wild giant pan­das has increased nearly 17% over the last decade, accord­ing to a new sur­vey con­ducted by the Chi­nese government.

Recently released fig­ures by the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment show that the global pop­u­la­tion of wild giant pan­das has reached 1,864 — up from 1,596 when their num­bers were last sur­veyed in 2003.

A sym­bol of wildlife con­ser­va­tion, giant pan­das are only found in China’s Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.

“This increase in the pop­u­la­tion of wild giant pan­das is a tes­ta­ment to the com­mit­ment made by the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment for the last 30-​plus years to wild panda con­ser­va­tion,” Hem­ley said. “WWF is grate­ful to have had the oppor­tu­nity to part­ner with the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment to con­tribute to panda con­ser­va­tion efforts.”

Accord­ing to the Fourth National Giant Panda Sur­vey, 1246 wild giant pan­das live within nature reserves, account­ing for 66.8% of the total wild pop­u­la­tion size and 53.8% of the total habi­tat area. There are cur­rently 67 panda nature reserves in China, an increase of 27 since the last sur­vey. The report found the total area inhab­ited by wild giant pan­das in China now equals close to 2,580,000 hectares (25,800 km², nearly the size of Bel­gium), an expan­sion of 11.8% since 2003.

Despite this pos­i­tive trend in the num­ber of wild giant pan­das and the size of its geo­graphic range, the species still faces chal­lenges. 46% of panda habi­tat and 33.2% of the pop­u­la­tion live out­side of pro­tected nature reserves. Habi­tat frag­men­ta­tion — the sep­a­ra­tion of wildlife pop­u­la­tions by phys­i­cal bar­ri­ers — is increas­ingly notice­able with about 12% indi­vid­u­als fac­ing higher risks to their sur­vival. The species is cur­rently listed as Endan­gered by the IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species™.

Two wild giant pan­das were cap­tured on a WWF cam­era trap roam­ing through the Sichuan Anz­ihe Nature Reserve. When mom pauses, the panda baby sits down. As the cub starts to lag behind, its mother picks it up by the scruff of the neck and moves down the hill:

Though tra­di­tional threats to pan­das such as poach­ing appear to decline, large-​scale infra­struc­ture projects like min­ing, hydro-​power, and sup­port­ing roads and rail­roads are becom­ing more severe threats and were ref­er­enced in the sur­vey for the first time.

WWF sup­ports the gov­ern­ment of China’s work by estab­lish­ing panda nature reserves and a con­ser­va­tion net­work that inte­grates those reserves with forests farms and cor­ri­dors of for­est that allow pan­das to find food and meet mates. The organisation’s work ensures the legal pro­tec­tion of a large per­cent­age of panda habi­tat and an improve­ment in how con­ser­va­tion efforts are car­ried out. WWF was also involved with the sur­vey produced.

Xiao­hai Liu, Exec­u­tive Pro­gram Direc­tor, WWF-​China said, “The sur­vey result demon­strates the effec­tive­ness of nature reserves in boost­ing wild giant panda numbers.”

(Source: WWF press release, 27.02.2015)