China makes significant progress in panda conservation

Giant panda Xian Xian has food at the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan) 

In recent years, China has made significant progress in panda conservation through a series of measures, including forest and wildlife protection as well as the construction of giant panda national parks. The wild giant panda population in China has grown from about 1,100 in the 1980s to nearly 1,900.

Giant panda reintroduction refers to releasing captive-bred giant pandas to their historical distribution areas to live and reproduce after acclimatization training so as to rebuild the wild population of the species.

China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP) started a reintroduction program in 2003. It has reintroduced eleven pandas into the wild, nine of which survived.

In the future, the center will continue to train more individual panda cubs using the mother-cub process before releasing them into the wild, while establishing small wild populations at the same time.

Giant panda Hui Hui is seen on a tree at the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 22, 2024. (Photo by Mu Shijie/Xinhua)

This file photo taken on June 4, 2020 shows a giant panda resting on a tree during wild training at Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province. (CCRCGP/Handout via Xinhua)

Staff member Mu Shijie looks for giant panda cubs while patrolling the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

Staff member Mu Shijie uses a DIY bamboo leaf whislte to call giant panda Hui Hui out for foraging at the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

Giant panda Xian Xian is pictured at the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

Giant panda Xian Xian has food at the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

Staff member Mu Shijie waves goodbye to giant panda Xian Xian after feeding her at the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

This file photo taken on Nov. 20, 2010 shows staff members dressed up in giant panda costumes holding a giant panda cub into a bamboo basket at the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Hetaoping panda base in Wolong, southwest China's Sichuan Province. (CCRCGP/Handout via Xinhua)

Giant panda Tian Tian has carrots at the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 29, 2024. (Photo by Liu Xiaoqiang/Xinhua)

Staff member Mu Shijie uses a radio positioning device to trace giant panda Xian Xian while calling out her name at Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

Giant panda Xian Xian comes out of the bamboo forest upon hearing the foraging call made by staff member Mu Shijie at the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

An aerial drone photo taken on June 24, 2024 shows a view of giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

Staff member Mu Shijie is pictured on the way to the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

Giant panda Xian Xian has food at the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

Staff member Mu Shijie, dressed up in a panda costume, feeds giant panda Xian Xian at the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

This file photo taken on Sept. 16, 2014 shows giant panda cub Hua Jiao (L), the world's first giant panda cub with both captive and wild parents, and her mother Cao Cao in the wild training fields. (CCRCGP/Handout via Xinhua)

Giant panda Hui Hui and her cub are seen at the wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 1, 2024. (Photo by Mu Shijie/Xinhua)

Staff member Mu Shijie prepares to patrol the giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

Staff member Mu Shijie records videos of giant panda Xian Xian outside the second-phase giant panda wild training fields of Tiantai Mountain in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 24, 2024. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

This file photo taken on Nov. 20, 2010 shows staff members monitoring the giant panda wild training fields of Hetaoping panda base in Wolong, southwest China's Sichuan Province. (CCRCGP/Handout via Xinhua)