Giant pandas no longer endangered
Conservation efforts have raised the number of wild pandas to over 1 800.
CHINA’S most iconic bear, the Giant panda, has recently been removed from the endangered species list. The announcement was made during the recent International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in the United states.
The conservation union said the country’s efforts on reforestation and forest protection had been successful in recuperating the panda bear’s dwindling numbers.
A recent survey conducted between 2011 and 2011 revealed that there is an estimated 1 864 Giant pandas in the wild – this excludes the number of cubs younger than 18 months. The panda has now been classified as ‘vulnerable’.
However, climate change was still a major concern raised at the union, in that it could destroy over 35 per cent of the giant panda’s bamboo habitat in the next 80 years.
The State Forestry Administration disputed the decision to downgrade the panda’s conservation status, saying that the species struggles to breed in the wild.
The organisation argued that if authorities were to ‘neglect or relax’ their conservation efforts the species could suffer irreversible loss.
The twittersphere reacts to the news:
https://twitter.com/ClaireSincerely/status/774150586253971456?lang=en
Giant pandas are no longer 'endangered,' but eastern gorillas face extinction: https://t.co/xFNXJbYnsR via @mashable
— World Wildlife Fund (@World_Wildlife) September 6, 2016
https://twitter.com/WrldOfElegnce/status/774078418937786370?lang=en
