Participants attending the 30th Session of the World Heritage
Committee to be held in Vilnius, Lithuania, from July 8 to 16 will
examine and consider China's bid to list its giant panda habitat in Sichuan Province as a UNESCO World Heritage
site, West China City Daily reported on June 19.
Liu Jixiang, director of the provincial administrative office
for World Heritage, said on June 18 that preparatory work for the
bid had gone smoothly. Liu will lead the Chinese delegation to
Vilnius on July 3. "If we win the bid, the giant panda habitat will
become the province's fifth listed site. We are confident that the
bid will be successful," Liu said.
The 18-member Chinese delegation includes officials from the
World Heritage provincial administrative office and experts in
giant panda research. At the conference, they will have to answer
questions put forward by the committee and present arguments in
support of their bid, collectively known as "Sichuan Giant Pandas
and Their Habitat."
The four World Heritage sites in Sichuan Province are the Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area, Huanglong Scenic Area, Mount Emei and the Leshan Giant Buddha, and Mount Qingcheng and Dujiangyan Irrigation
System.
The giant panda habitat is a huge area located between the Dadu
River and the Minshan mountain range. It stretches 180 kilometers
from north to south, and between 40 and 70 kilometers from east to
west. It straddles 12 counties in four cities, namely Chengdu,
Ya'an, Aba and Ganzi.
After years of study and evaluation, Chinese experts proposed
that the vast area encircled by the Qionglai (also known as
Wolong), Siguniang (meaning "four girls" in Chinese), and Jiajin
mountain ranges be put forward for World Heritage protection. The
habitat contains nine scenic spots and eight nature reserves,
covering an area of 9,510 square kilometers.
Since the bid was put forward in early 2001, the provincial
government has worked hard to strengthen environmental protection
efforts in the province, especially in Chengdu and Ya'an cities
where the giant panda habitat is located.
Companies and construction projects within nature reserves that
do not meet set environment-friendly criteria have been barred from
operating or shut down.?
Abandoned construction projects include three power stations in
Chengdu, and those that were shut down include 68 coalmines and
enterprises in Chengdu, and 10 in Ya'an.
If this bid is successful, the habitat area could be extended to
the Minshan, Liangshan, Xiangling and Qinling mountains in the
future, Liu added.
Liu explained that this would be done to make the pandas' living
space less scattered. Currently, pandas essentially live on
mountain "islands". Putting the entire area under protection will
help to encourage a more complete eco-system.?
(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong, June 25, 2006)
