The construction of a national highway 23 years ago separated the two largest giant panda populations in the Qinling Mountains of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The China Programme of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Forestry Department of Shaanxi Province yesterday launched a programme to build up an ecological corridor to reunite the two isolated panda populations.

Rangers from the Mount Guanyinshan Provincial Nature Reserve of Shaanxi and 30 WWF volunteers planted bamboo on top of the 1,900-metre-long Qinling Tunnel during the launch ceremony.

In the next two months, they will plant 87 hectares of bamboo on the slopes over the tunnel.

The tunnel, completed in 1999, led to the abandonment of a 13-kilometre section of the highway, and has created the possibility of reconnecting the fragmented habitats of the giant pandas in Mount Tianhuashan, where there are approximately 20, and Mount Xinglongling, where there are about 110.

In 2000, the area along the abandoned road was listed by the province as one of the key ecological corridors for giant pandas in the Qinling Mountains. It was put under the State's protection in 2002, and at the same time Guanyinshan reserve was established.

In 2005, WWF made a socio-economic survey and worked out the threats to giant pandas in the area. In September 2005, the international conservation organization co-operated with the nature reserve to begin restoring the giant panda habitat in the area. The project began yesterday is part of the effort.

"The project is an active and valuable attempt by WWF and our partners to connect the fragmented habitats in the Qinling Mountains," said Dermot O'Gorman, representative of the WWF China Programme.

"We hope the green bamboo corridor can connect the panda populations separated by the highway, free the animal from human and traffic disturbance, and bring new hope to the conservation of wild giant pandas in Qinling."

Source:China Daily