Bank of China to raise 10b yuan for panda national park within five years

The Sichuan provincial branch of the Bank of China has signed an agreement with the Sichuan provincial department of forestry, pledging to raise 10 billion yuan ($1.58 billion) from 2018 to 2023 for the construction of the Giant Panda National Park.

The agreement signed in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding on Tuesday is a framework aimed at poverty alleviation among residents in the park and infrastructure improvement there, said Zheng Weichao, an official with the leading Sichuan group in charge of park planning in the Sichuan provincial department of forestry.

Although details of the agreement are yet to be worked out, he believes that it will be conducive to panda conservation. Only if local residents lead a better life can they have a stronger desire to protect endangered animal species, he said.

Planning for the Giant Panda National Park began Jan 31, 2017, when the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and State Council issued a circular on the project.

Covering 27,134 square kilometers -- three times the size of Yellowstone National Park in the United States -- the park is expected to help wild pandas isolated on six mountains across the three provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu to mingle and strengthen their gene pool.

More than 80 percent of the world's wild pandas live in Sichuan, with the rest in Shaanxi and Gansu.

The Sichuan part of the Giant Panda National Park covers 19 cities, districts and counties with a population of more than 170,000 people. Many of the 19 cities, districts and counties are in less-developed mountainous areas such as the cities of Ya'an and Guangyuan and Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture.

It was also on Tuesday that the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding signed an agreement with the 19 cities, districts and counties to help their people beat poverty through education and sales of specialties.

The agreement is an outline whose details will be forged. But one thing is for sure. Students in the 19 cities, districts and counties will be shown around the base and other parts of Chengdu to enable them to have a better sense of panda conservation, according to Li Jie, a base information officer.

Stalls have been set up in her base to showcase specialties from some of the 19 cities, districts and counties, including edible fungi.