Giant Panda Habitat: Long road to recovery

By Wang Ying


Nearly six months after the May 12 earthquake devastated southwest China’s Sichuan Province, local residents are making big strides as they rise above the rubble.

However, it was still unknown how the catastrophe affected the local ecosystem and wildlife in the steep forest-covered mountains that are home to many endangered wildlife including the giant pandas.

Few dared enter the mountains over the July to September rainy season due to fears of aftershocks and landslides.

The massive earthquake mainly jolted the Minshan and Qionglai mountains in Sichuan and Gansu as well as the Qinling mountains in Shaanxi, the main habitat area of giant pandas and one of the world's key biodiversity areas.

To learn more about the post-earthquake impact of the giant panda habitat in Sichuan, WWF launched a field survey in the Minshan Mountains in mid-October.

First Panda traces found in the first field survey

Ranger Jiang Zhongjun, 36, is a calm person who has experienced hundreds of dangerous situations in his 12 years of patrolling the Minshan Mountains in northern Sichuan but the aftershocks of the May 12 earthquake still stet him shudder.

"I remember one of the latest ones very well as a large falling stone almost killed me in Dujiangyan at 10 am on October 16," he says. "I felt the ground suddenly jerking up and down, making it hard to stand. The falling stone, as large as a cooking pot, fell toward my head at great speed while I was measuring the size of a landslide near a mountain at Longchi Park."


Jiang's quick reflexes got him out of harm's way just in time for him to see the huge rock land several centimeters from his feet. There were two further aftershocks later that day, causing Jiang and his colleagues to rush out of their shelter, an abandoned, collapsed house at a village on their monitoring route.

Jiang's quick reflexes got him out of harm's way just in time for him to see the huge rock land several centimeters from his feet. There were two further aftershocks later that day, causing Jiang and his colleagues to rush out of their shelter, an abandoned, collapsed house at a village on their monitoring route.

"Three aftershocks a day! I still felt the ground was moving several days later," says Jiang.

That day was the first day rangers had entered Longchi Park at the Longxi-Hongkou nature reserve in Sichuan since the earthquake jolted southwest China nearly six months earlier.

Jiang was part of a field trip collecting first-hand material on how the earthquake affected wildlife and the habitat of giant pandas in the Minshan and Qionglai mountains in Sichuan, the main habitat of giant pandas and one of the world's 25 key biodiversity areas.

Organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and local forestry departments, the two-week field trip was the first survey on the impact of the quake on giant panda habitats in Sichuan.

Aftershocks and mudflows caused by rain had kept people out of the mountains ever since the devastating quake, measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale, killed more than 80,000 people and destroyed tens of thousands of houses.

Despite the several aftershocks, Jiang had been longing for the field survey and experienced a moment of great, albeit brief, joy when he found evidence of giant pandas still living in the wild.

At the Longxi-Hongkou nature reserve, Jiang found fresh giant panda feces in the dense bamboo forest 2,000 m above sea level. He measured the size of the feces, recorded the detailed location and ground situation of the site and collected samples for further lab analysis.

"It was rare to find giant panda traces in the wild even before the earthquake because the animal tries hard to avoid human beings," he says.

The giant panda's three basic living requirements are water, bamboo and flat areas, with slopes of less than 30-40 degrees. The group's chances of finding giant panda traces were quite rare as the panda meeting places were greatly reduced by the disaster, Jiang says.


Field survey for panda habitat restoration

The pilot survey chose the Qianfoshan and Longxi-Hongkou nature reserves, two heavily damaged panda reserves in Sichuan, to get a general idea of the earthquake's damage on the local ecosystem.

More than 40 rangers and researchers took part, setting up 15 monitoring lines, each stretching 10 to 40 km. Their daily treks, often more than 30 km, made the days long and exhausting but all coped thanks to their years of field experience.

Zhu Yundong, 31, a ranger from Xiaozhaizigou nature reserve in Beichuan county, whose 5-year-old twin boys were killed in the earthquake, went on the trip to help collect evidence of wildlife in the giant panda habitat. Zhu, whose wife is still in hospital with heavy injuries caused by the earthquake, has developed a sharp nose to distinguish wild animal traces.

He discovered dozens of traces of wild animals like leopard cats, musk deer, tufted deer and pheasants.

To compare the wildlife situation before and after the disaster, the survey covered all the former monitoring and patrolling routes in the two nature reserves before the earthquake.

"Wild animal traces including giant pandas' have obviously decreased, compared with before the earthquake," he says.

It is unknown how many wild pandas were killed or injured in the earthquake as no panda corpses have been found in the wild so far, says Prof Ran Jianghong, from the Bioscience Institute of Sichuan University, who also attended the survey.

Wild pandas' innate survival instincts would have alerted them to flee quake-triggered landslides on high ground.

"The earthquake might not have caused direct population loss to the pandas but it would have damaged their habitats and blocked their migration routes, which may affect the animal's breeding in the future." Ran says.

“Final report of the pilot survey will be complete by the end of November and other nature reserves will also conduct such survey in the near future to present a detailed and complete view of the earthquake impact to the ecosystem.” says Wang Tao, deputy director of the Qianfoshan nature reserve. The survey result will help conservationists to develop future plans to restore panda habitat.

Panda habitat and migration routes damaged

There are around 1,600 pandas in the wild, according to figures from the State Forestry Administration. The pandas live in 67 nature reserves in western China's Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces - 1,200 in Sichuan, 300 in Shaanxi and 100 in Gansu.

The administration estimated in June that the panda habitat area affected by the earthquake reached 1.96 million hectares, or 83 percent of the country's total giant panda habitat areas, according to remote sensing surveys.

Twenty-seven out of the 40 giant panda nature reserves in Sichuan and eight out of the 20 nature reserves in Shaanxi, as well as all the seven nature reserves in Gansu were damaged.


At the Longxi-Hongkou nature reserve, 34 percent of vegetation was lost due to the earthquake, according to remote sensing results.

Xu Weihua, a researcher at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, joined the field survey in Sichuan to see if the situation in the nature reserves tallied with the remote sensing results.

"We found that the ground situation of the vegetation damage was basically in accordance with the remote sensing results we obtained months ago," Xu says.

"When giant panda’s population in a habitat is less than 60, the giant pandas are easy to fall inbreeding which leads to gene degradation," Professor Ran Jianghong says. The latest national giant panda survey found only 35 pandas in the habitat of southern section of Minshan mountains where located four nature reserves.

In that case, the Tudiling corridor in Maoxian county, the important channel linking the giant panda group in southern and northern Minshan Mountains will be critical for the panda’s migration. However, the newly-formed Tangjiashan quake lake inundated roads connecting Beichuan to the outside world,forcing local people take the road of the corridor.

The construction plans of a road connecting Jiuzhaigou and Chengdu in Sichuan and a railway connecting Lanzhou in Gansu and Chongqing have been suspended due to the earthquake. The two large construction projects will pass the panda preserves.

Professor Ran hopes that the post-disaster reconstruction work will take into account of the protection of giant panda's habitat and migrant routes to prevent artificial blockage and fragmentation.

In nearby Shaanxi province, local forestry departments are considering restoring some bamboo forests after recently monitoring and patrolling in Qinling Mountains, the main giant panda habitat in Shaanxi.

No trace of any panda life was found during the week-long monitoring and patrolling in the nature reserve but rangers found extensive damage to large areas of bamboo forests, the giant panda's only food.

Wang Ge, a researcher from the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, says one reason for the demise of the bamboo forests is the change in ground conditions and local climate caused by the quake.

The snowstorms earlier this year also destroyed a large area of bamboo trees, leading to a plague of rats and further damage in Shaanxi, he says.

To make things worse, the most badly affected bamboo forest areas, more than 300 hectares, bordered Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and were on the giant panda's migration route, says Li Qingbao, director of the reserve's administrative bureau.

"If a large area of bamboo forests died on this migration route and cannot quickly recover, the food chain of the giant panda will break and the panda group in the Qinling mountains will be completely separated from that in Sichuan," Li says.

Panda Protection system destroyed

The earthquake also caused severe damage to the panda protection system. The Sichuan Forestry Bureau Eighty panda protection stations were affected, while others, such as Gaochuan station in the Qianfoshan Reserve, were reduced to rubble.

Many protection stations located above 2,000 meters were the hardest hit, bureau officials say. Structures were severely damaged as were computer systems and years of archived information. At Wolong, the quake also ruined a large number of specimens used in panda research.


“The greatest difficulty is that our protection was almost totally wiped out overnight after over 30 years of growth. It will take a long time to recover,” says Fan Zhiyong, director of the WWF species programme.

WWF's post-earthquake work has focused on getting protection stations up and running as quickly as possible. GPS systems, computers, cameras, trucks as well as technical and financial support have been provided to start new panda habitat monitoring and patrolling. Two temporary protect stations were also set up at the Baishuihe Reserve and Anzihe Reserve with support from WWF.

Preliminary survey and patrolling in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces has finished, which means more research projects in disaster-affected areas will start.

But even with more research underway, gathering funds to rebuild nature reserves has proven challenging. With most government money has been earmarked to resolve local people’s housing problems, which puts Sichuan’s 27 badly damaged nature reserves on the back burner.

Yan Yongbi, a Forestry Department official from Anxian country near the epicenter of the earthquake, says dozens of houses at Sichuan’s 80 protection stations collapsed and major infrastructure was damaged.

“We are trying to find more support to help us conduct biodiversity surveys in the disaster areas in the future,” Yan said. “We hope our influence will help speed up the restoration process.”

A double-edged sword

"For conservation, the earthquake was a double-edged sword," says Xu Weihua from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "When landslides block roads, destroy houses and bury farmland, humans have to move out, leaving their former land to wildlife," he says.

With road access extremely limited in some quake-affected areas, human impact has been reduced to a minimum. Reports suggest that wildlife populations in Sichuan’s Longxi-Hongkou and Baishuihe reserves have thrived as a result.

"Traces of musk deer, leopard cat, tufted deer and sambar deer can now easily be found
in areas that previously saw few wild animals," Xu says.

In nearby Shaanxi, earthquake damage has forced out many long-term residence out of another giant panda habitat, the Qingmuchuan Reserve. Reports say the area’s environment is also benefiting as a result.

China’s large population means that land resources are limited. This is a cause for alarm, notes WWF China’s Fan Zhiyong: "Human beings entered the heart of natural forests and mountains for mining, logging, poaching and farming, which has greatly damaged the sanctuary wildlife once had," he said.

One look at the decline of the giant panda population says as much. There were roughly 2,500 wild pandas in the 1970s, but the number now stands at fewer than 1,600, according to WWF and Chinese government survey from 1999-2003.

The establishment of new nature reserves has helped keep the panda population in balance. So has a 1998 ban on logging in natural forests. But progress has been blighted by large-scale infrastructure construction, leaving many groups in fragmented and isolated locations.

New roads, power stations, mines and massive tourist projects have caused irreparable damage to some of China’s richest wildlife depositories, the Minshan and Qionglai mountains among them.

“The top concern during reconstruction should be reducing human disturbance on the environment.” Fan Zhiyong says.

Balancing human needs with the policies and actions necessary to ensure panda habitats are restored to optimal health is a formidable challenge. If funds are available for relocation of local residents, reserve staff may have an easier time ensuring the precious habitat is naturally restored. But if funding simply isn’t available, the challenges will be greater. The situation does indeed present a razor sharp double-edged sword.

Community matters

WWF has launched surveys to learn how the May 12th earthquake impacted communities located on or near nature reserves.

Using a new study tool called Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment in Disasters (REIAD), survey teams have discovered that running water, electricity and building material shortages need to be urgently addressed.

Through questionnaire sampling covering 30% of a residential community, group discussions, and village assembly, investigators looked into strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats villages faced in their future development.

The destruction of hydropower stations in reserves, for example, means many local residences have been forced to rely on firewood to supply their cooking and heating needs. This comes at considerable cost to the environment.

To remedy this, WWF plans to launch a project later this year that will provide 45 biomass gasifier stoves to three residential communities in the Wolong Nature Reserve. Surveys determined that the move would help reduce local people’s reliance on firewood.

Lianhe village was devastated in the earthquake, with 5 dead and 99% of its houses destroyed. Of its 428 people, most relied on farming and livestock for survival, but few can now support themselves.

Lianhe entire village was relocated to a temporary residential site 20 kilometers from its original location. Power lines, roads, farmland and the forest that surrounded the village were all destroyed, cutting off major sources of income. Lianhe’s population is now completely reliant on meager government subsidies.

Making matters worse, landslides blocked up rivers in high altitude areas effectively choking off all of the village’s water resources.

To help solve the drinking water problem, WWF is planning to build a water pipe.

38-year-old villager Liu Fanxiang, a mother of two teenage boys, is concerned about her family's future life as most of their kiwi and officinal magnolia trees were damaged in the disaster.

"Without enough water, we cannot resume farming. We won’t be able to make any money this year," Liu says.

Most village families earn an average of 2,000-3,000 RMB per year, lower than other villages near the reserve, she says.

"Many people visited us after the earthquake," she says. "We hope they will bring more development projects to help us improve our lives."

The total destruction of their homes, possessions and livelihoods often leaves earthquake victims feeling empty and lost.

"WWF has organized painting, drama workshops and other activities to add a little color to peoples’ lives. In one case, we’re going to encourage people to paint the walls of their make-shift houses," says Chen Can from WWF’s Chengdu office.

Tang Lu, a 6-year-old girl, was very excited that her school library received a number of new books donated by WWF: "I love painting and I like the new picture books in our library," Tang says.

A "Green reconstruction" concept has also been introduced to conserve resources in earthquake-stricken areas.

To consume fewer resources, WWF has been calling for the use of environmentally-friendly construction material when rebuilding houses.

In nearby Shaanxi province, the earthquake destroyed most of the houses in residential communities around the Qingmuchuan Reserve, pushing many deep into the grip of poverty.

Before the earthquake, villages around the nature reserve were very poor and young people went out to work, leaving only the elderly and children at home. Most made a living raising pigs and cultivating mushrooms.

But the disaster forced all 727 people living near the reserve to move elsewhere. Government will help local people build new homes, which will also push them deep into debt. Few will be able to find new opportunities to earn a living.

"If local people cannot obtain other sources of income, they might start using mountain resources," says Li Qingbao, director of the administrative bureau of the nature reserve.

"WWF will help us carry out community development projects like beekeeping and tea planting in the future. This will help prevent locals from relying on the forest as a source of income," Li says.


Dubbed the “Green Heart of China," the quake-stricken area is located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, which is also home to the Qinling, Minshan and Qionglai mountains. The area is a biodiversity hotspot and habitat for the giant panda and other rare species.

"Restoration of this “’Green Heart,’” says Ling Lin, director of WWF’s Chengdu office, “plays a key role in China's sustainable ecological development. Proper treatment will ensure China holds on to own one of the world’s most valuable natural landscapes."

Ling reveals that WWF is considering a five-year "Green Reconstruction" framework to include recommendations and ideas from experts around the world.

"Reconstruction is long-term work. Be we will work with partners from home and abroad to make sure our contributions count," Ling says.