The giant panda is no longer classified as being at risk of extinction, thanks to the protection and reforestation efforts undertaken by China over recent decades, according to the IUCN.
There is good news for the world of biodiversity: the giant panda is no longer at risk of extinction. The population of this animal is in fact increasing, after having been on the brink of extinction since 1990. The efforts undertaken to protect the panda are bearing fruit, moving the species' conservation status from "endangered" to "vulnerable".
The news comes from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (Iucn), the organisation that draws up the red list — the most comprehensive assessment of the conservation status of animal and plant species in the world.
China has been working for years to grow the giant panda population, a species that was once widespread throughout the country and in Southeast Asia. In the 1980s, when panda populations began to decline due to poaching and deforestation, the country started taking significant action to protect the species, banning the trade in panda skins in 1981 and hunting in 1988. China is also engaged in breeding programmes and in the repopulation of bamboo forests, the food that makes up up to 99 per cent of the animal's diet.
Given that the panda is entirely dependent on thriving bamboo forests for its survival, China's efforts to save its emblematic animal focus primarily on forest protection and reforestation. This has made it possible to record an "11.8 per cent increase in habitat occupied by pandas and a 6.3 per cent increase in unoccupied but suitable panda habitat", the Iucn stated. This explains how the number of pandas in the world increased by 17 per cent between 2004 and 2014.
However, "although the population is growing, it is predicted that over the next 80 years climate change will cause up to 35 per cent of panda habitat to disappear and, consequently, the population of this animal will once again be in decline", the association warned in its report.
Although the Iucn described its decision to reassess the animal's conservation status as "a positive sign", it nevertheless stressed the importance of continuing to protect the species and its habitat, to prevent new environmental threats from undoing the gains that have just been made.
Translated by Camilla Soldati