SW China's Sichuan pushes forward Giant Panda National Park development

1. Two giant pandas play at the Bifengxia Panda Base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Photo/Hao Liyi)

2. Photo shows a wild giant panda in the Tangjiahe area of the Giant Panda National Park in southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Photo/Ma Wenhu)

3. A village decorated with panda-themed elements at the southern entrance of the Giant Panda National Park in southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Photo/Ren Yuxin)

4. Photo shows the science popularization and education center of the Giant Panda National Park in southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Photo/Hao Liyi)

As China's national park reform initiative marks its 10th anniversary this year, the third National Park Forum was convened in August in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Before the forum, ambassadors and counselors from New Zealand, Belgium and the Netherlands, along with representatives of the World Wide Fund for Nature, visited the Bifengxia Panda Base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Ya'an, Sichuan, and the Yingjing area of the Giant Panda National Park in Yingjing county, Ya'an. There, they saw firsthand China's achievements in giant panda conservation and ecological restoration.

"As of the end of last year, the center was home to 387 giant pandas. Conservation and breeding efforts are now shifting from simply increasing numbers to improving the overall quality of the population," said Huang Zhi, director of the Bifengxia Panda Base of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Ya'an.

China's wild panda population has grown from about 1,100 in the 1980s to around 1,900 today, driven by habitat protection, captive breeding and reintroduction programs.

"Belgium has worked with China on panda conservation for many years," said Annabelle Schreiber, an agricultural attache at the Embassy of Belgium in China. "We have seen the rapid growth of the wild panda population, and we look forward to even greater progress in our future cooperation."

The Longcanggou National Forest Park in Yingjing county is now a popular tourist destination. Many visitors stop by Fazhan village, near the park's southern entrance, to rest and explore.

Since the Giant Panda National Park pilot project launched in 2017, Fazhan village's permanent population and its agritainment facilities and bed-and-breakfasts have doubled, while average per capita income has quadrupled.

"Since the Giant Panda National Park was established, tourist numbers have kept rising. From July to September, the peak season, finding a room is difficult," said Zhou Hong, a local villager.

The Giant Panda National Park was officially established in 2021. The Sichuan section of the park accounts for 88 percent of its total area. Spanning 19,300 square kilometers, it is home to 1,227 wild giant pandas — over 91 percent of the park's total panda population — along with more than 10,000 other species, including the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey and Chinese monal.

The Sichuan section includes a 13,200-square-kilometer core protection zone and a 6,100-square-kilometer general control zone. To safeguard these areas, 106 management grids and 663 fixed patrol routes have been established.

In 2024 alone, rangers completed 75,400 patrols covering more than 94,500 kilometers and recorded 55 panda sightings and 2,005 traces of activity. Seven ecological corridors underwent continuous restoration, with nearly 331,400 mu (about 22,093 hectares) of habitat restored.

Technology is transforming conservation efforts. A monitoring network of 3,871 infrared cameras captured more than 3,870 images of wild giant pandas in 2024. The park has identified 36 species of wild animals and compiled "DNA ID cards" for its giant pandas while pioneering "panda facial recognition" technology that enables real-time wireless transmission of images and videos.

In 2025, China's first "giant panda college" in Sichuan will enroll an additional 111 undergraduate and graduate students to train a new generation of conservation experts.