Good news around the world has been brought up: Pandas are no longer endangered! But that doesn't mean that they're out of the woods yet since factors such as dwindling habitats are taken into consideration.
It was updated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that pandas are being crossed out of the Red List of Threatened Species since their population has risen since 2014, according to Collective Evolution. However despite the downgrade in the conservation status, the species have moved to the "vulnerable" list. Efforts have been made in China for habitat conservation and reforestation in order for the species to progressively reestablish themselves.
Although efforts being effective, the Chinese government will not be able to prevent the environmental hazard destroying one-third of the bamboo forests over the next 80 years due to climate change. This would prove deadly and detrimental to the steadily growing population of the pandas, causing their numbers to dwindle once again.
Local news in China covered the issue further, as China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda's Zhang Hemin, also known as the "Father of Pandas" in China, mentioned that taking the species off the "endangered" list happened too soon, according to Yahoo News via Xinhua News.
Zhang mentioned that the "very fragmented natural habitat" still endangers the survival of panda. Again, climate change plays a major factor here, having adverse effects on the habitat. Zhang also added that "there is still a lot to be done in both protection and management terms."
The small sub-populations of the isolated groups might be even in more risk with the high probability of them dying out more quickly. With the conservation status being downgraded, Zhang fears that efforts to conserve the species might lessen, with the result of having a grave "irreversible loss" for both the panda population and the habitat even more.
China has gone to great extents to preserve their iconic animal and its habitat, with efforts that have been ongoing for decades now. As of now, they were able to establish 67 reserves that cover 14,000 square kilometers each, with 67 percent of the panda population.
Poaching has since been banned on 1980, putting a halt in the panda's extinction. Since 1990, human efforts have impacted the growth in their population. Based on recent survey, the population has reached more than two thousand pandas.
