China to start construction of new panda breeding base in Sichuan

Special Report:Reconstruction After Earthquake

Two giant pandas play attemporary
resettlement area in Wolong, southwest China's Sichuan Province.(Xinhua
Photo)
Photo
Gallery

CHENGDU, April 19 (Xinhua) -- China will start
construction of a new breeding center for giant pandas around May to replace the
former quake-leveled habitat in southwestern Sichuan Province, officials said.

The new China Giant Panda Protection and Research
Center will be located in Huangcaoping area, about 10 kilometers from the former
one. The new base is also in the Wolong nature reserve wrecked by the
8.0-magnitude earthquake in May 2008, said Huang Jianhua, the Party chief of the
nature reserve administration.

Three giant pandaseat at temporary
resettlement area in Wolong, southwest China's Sichuan Province.(Xinhua
Photo)
Photo
Gallery

The new base includes 25 projects funded by Hong
Kong, totaling about 1.3 billion yuan (about 191 million U.S. dollars), and 19
projects funded by the state forestry administration, totaling about 270 million
yuan.

"We select the Huangcaoping because the environment,
water, weather and geological situations here are the best," Huang said. "The
pandas will be comfortable living here as it is not far from the former base."

"Safety is the priority," he said.

Wolong reserve, 10 kilometers away from the
epicenter, was severely damaged in the quake last year. The quake left one panda
dead, one injured and another one missing.

Most of the pandas in the reserve were moved to the
Bifengxia breeding base in Ya'an City and some zoos elsewhere after the quake.
Only six pandas of about 18 months are living in prefabricated houses in the
reserve.

The state-level protection and research center was
built in 1980. As the world's largest breeding center for the endangered
species, it has 142 captive pandas, taking 60 percent of the world's total.

In addition, building of a panda disease control and
prevention center will also be launched soon and is expected to be completed in
2010 in Dujiangyan, a city near the Sichuan provincial capital, Chengdu. In the
future, pandas in any breeding base in China will be transferred here for
treatment in case they contracted infectious diseases.

There are about 1,590 pandas living in the wild
around the country, mostly in Sichuan and the northwestern provinces of Shaanxi
and Gansu. Another 180 are being bred in captivity.