- After 1990
New Plans:
Although the plan of relocation in 1983 in Wolong failed, fortunately in 1991, three hundred people were relocated from the Tangjiahe Natural Reserve in Qingchuan County of Sichuan Province. The relocation project cost China’s Ministry of Forestry $370000, including compensation for loss of resources, such as walnut trees and orchards, which had to be left behind.
In 1992, China’s State Council approved a new ten-year plan entitled ‘The National Conservation Programme for the Giant Panda and its Habitat’ (NCPGP). The NCPGP spelled out new directives to safeguard panda habitats outside of the reserves. Hunting and burning of vegetation are banned; bamboo is restocked; migration corridor across roads are identified and protected; and forestry operations and logging are modified or halted as not to harm pandas.
One-fifth of its $35.7 million budget will be provided by the Chinese government. The WWF has agreed to help the Ministry of Forestry raise the necessary funds to implement the programme. The funds come primarily from membership and their budget, which includes marketing ventures, grants and foundations. According to the WWF International Country profile of China in 1995, some of the NCPGP activities have already begun: "Two new reserves were established in 1993 –Laoxiancheng in Shaanxi and Anzihe in Sichuan. The Sichuan Forestry Department has begun detailed designs for the 10 proposed reserves in the province. Several existing panda reserves have been upgraded, and a center office to oversee the NCPGP is up and running at the Ministry of Forestry in Beijing. WWF will also start work at the Wanglang Reserve in northern Sichuan’s Min Mountains. This is in addition to other on-going WWF-supported activities such as reserve management planning, guard training at Wolong, and the research work of Pan Wenshi, one of the China’s leading panda experts."
In 1994 the National Environmental Protection Agency in Beijing announced the planning and establishment of the Longmanshan Reserve in Sichuan Province: "The objectives of this project are to establish a nature reserve in the northern Min Mountains protecting more of the giant panda’s fragmented range, and with it the high biodiversity associated with this region. This planned reserve covers 970 km square, and has been given high priority in the Ministry of Forestry’s program to protect the giant panda.
In 1996 the Ministry of Forestry drew up blueprints for an additional nineteen panda protection zones. When completed, about 95 percent of China’s wild pandas will be covered by the zones.
A June 1997 WWF work plan includes workshops on panda reintroduction and the feasibility of ecotourism in panda areas, surveys, reserve staff training, monitoring of biodiversity, education and public awareness, community-based conservation activities; and hiring two Chinese researchers to work with Dr. Lu Zhi. Recommendations of the NCPGP include relocating farmers, halting logging in some areas, linking isolated reserves with corridors doubling the size of reserves, and supporting studies of giant panda breeding in the wild and in zoos.