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Giant Panda Habitat included into WHC List
www.chinanews.cn 2006-07-13 08:56:18
(Source: Xinhua)
People celebrate the Giant Panda Habitat is included into WHC List.
Two giant pandas play with each other on a tree in their habitat in
China's southwestern Sichuan Province.(Photo: scol.com.cn)
VILNIUS, Lithuania, July 12 - Members of the 30th session of the World
Heritage Committee (WHC) agreed on Wednesday to put China's giant panda
habitat on the World Heritage List.
After deliberation, the WHC unanimously agreed to place the panda habitat
on the list, making it the 35th Chinese site to be included.
"We greatly thank the Chinese government for submitting such a good
application to the WHC to enrich the World Heritage List and its
tremendous efforts to protect such a precious site of bio-diversity,"
said the WHC.
"This is a great success for China, the World Heritage Convention and for
conservation in general," said David Sheppard, head of the International
Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN)
delegation in Vilnius.
"It shows how the World Heritage Convention can encourage governments to
ensure the greatest level of protection for globally important sites," he
said.
Lu Zhi, professor from College of Life Science of Beijing University said
Chinese governments of all levels have made long-time effort in
protecting the rare giant pandas and their habitat, which covers an area
of 9,245 square km between Da Duhe and Minjiang in southwest Sichuang
Province.
The giant panda "serves as a flagship in terms of animal species and
loved by people around the world," and "the habitat is of universal value
in bio-diversity, which has been agreed universally," said Lu, a expert
for the protection of natural heritage.
"That's why the UNESCO's World Heritage Center is keen to put it on the
World Heritage List," she said.
The World Wildlife Fund's former China Director, James Harkness, once
said that the panda's territory was one of the most critical regions for
bio-diversity conservation in the world. Its diverse habitats contain
many rare and endangered animals and plant species.
The inclusion is of great significance in better protecting rare animal
species such as golden-haired monkeys, antelopes aside from giant pandas,
as well as plant species whose numbers are more than 10,000 kinds in the
area.
"To protect an animal is not just put it living in the zoo, but keep it
live along in its own home," Lu said.
Wang Fengwu, member of the Chinese delegation to the meeting, told
reporters that China had spent 20 years attempting to get the panda
habitat included on the World Heritage List.
China's earnest will to protect world heritage received appreciation from
the WHC, which put the panda habitat at the top of the agenda of 37 sites
to be discussed for inclusion at the meeting.
The giant pandas and their habitat will be protected in the future not
only in accordance with Chinese law but also international law, he added.
Wang believed that the successful inclusion of the site on the list would
prompt effective protection of rare and endangered animals and plant
species that depend on the habitat. This would help to ensure that the
giant pandas survive for generations to come.
As China is not one of the 21 members of the WHC, it did not submit a
report on the site, Wang told reporters, adding that the WHC agreed to
place the site on the list after deliberating over a report submitted by
international experts.
The report spoke highly of the habitat's bio-diversity value, describing
it as an area featuring rare and endangered animals and plants.
Experts also said urgent improvements needed to be made to protect the
site, proposing that the construction of water plants, roads and other
development inside the habitat be controlled.
Aside from China's giant panda habitat, the committee also put Colombia's
Malpelo Flora and Fauna Sanctuary and Finland's Kvarken Archipelago on
the list.
The Malpelo Flora and Fauna Sanctuary forms part of the critical marine
biological corridor with the Galapagos, Cocos and Coiba Islands Wolrd
Heritage sites.
Its extensive marine area of 857,150 hectares is the largest no-fishing
zone in the Eastern Tropical Pacific and considered of huge value to
maintain and replenish the number of threatened and endangered marine
species.
The coastline of Finland's Kvarken Archipelago was recognized by the WHC
for its global value in demonstrating the Earth's geological processes.
It is an extension of the High Coast of Sweden World Heritage site
because of the uplift of the earth's crust following the retreat of the
last ice age glaciers in this area some 10,000 years ago.
Furthermore, the WHC decided not to put the Tropical Rainforest Heritage
of Sumatra, Indonesia, on the List of World Heritage in Danger despite
escalating threats to the site.
The number of the List of World Nature Heritage in Danger was reduced
from 15 to 13 following the removal of the Tunisia's Ichkeul National
Park and the Senegal's Djoudj Bird Sanctuary from the list.
But the WHC said it will consider to put the site into the danger list in
2007 if no progress has been made.
The July 8-16 session of the WHC has been examining 37 new sites from 30
states bidding to be included into the World Heritage List.
The ruins of the Shang Dynasty capital in Anyang city of Henan province
is under discussion for inclusion into the cultural heritage list.
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