China will create a park-giant for its pandas almost as large as Belgium

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AFP

Thursday, 8 march, 2018 06:28

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Thursday, 8 march, 2018 06:28

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Shanghai | China will create a huge natural park for its pandas: an area close to that of Belgium, it aims to combine the specimens, and to encourage their reproduction, said on Thursday a daily official.

The State will spend at least 10 billion yuan over the next five years to the building of the national Park for the giant panda in the mountains of the south-west of the country, instead of the traditional life of the ursidé, according to the China Daily.

The sanctuary dedicated to the mammal in coat black-and-white and round ears, stretching over 27 000 km2, an area equivalent to that of Sicily or Belgium.

The goal is to push the communities of pandas currently isolated in three provinces in China to mix, and reproduce.

This is not a trivial matter: these ursidés have the reputation of being awkward during the mating, which is often too fast for the female to be fertilized. In addition, it is receptive for two or three days per year to the advances of his partner.

The international Union for the conservation of nature (IUCN) was released in September 2016, the animal species list ” in danger “, highlighting the effectiveness of the efforts undertaken by China to save the mammal. The species, however, remains ” vulnerable “.

More than 80% of the pandas ‘ wild in the world reside in the chinese province of Sichuan (south-west) and the rest in neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu, located to the north.

The funding of the park was approved Tuesday after an agreement between the chinese bank Bank of China and the forestry Department of Sichuan province, reported the China Daily. The envelope will be used to finance programmes for poverty reduction in the affected areas, and to build the new infrastructure of the park.