Local focus on giant panda habitat results in community gains

In the heart of China, a community of around 400 people is a successful example of the many benefits that can come from investing in conservation. Guanba village is in a valley surrounded by protected areas that are home to giant pandas, the iconic animals that are a symbol for global efforts to protect the environment.

The area around Guanba, in Sichuan province and over 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) from Beijing, was heavily deforested during the last century and deeply affected by floods in the 1990s that led China to impose a national ban on logging. Still, the local community continued to depend mostly on activities with an impact on the environment and the giant panda habitat, such as raising livestock, poaching, and fishing. At the same time, young people in the village left for bigger cities looking for job opportunities.

Since 2008, a series of national and internationally funded projects have sought to identify alternatives to logging, and to create local employment opportunities without destroying nature. Initially, they focused on honey production, with the marketing appeal of being produced with flowers from the giant panda's natural habitat. Now, the village has a cooperative for honey and one for ecotourism, among other community-based initiatives. Young people have moved back to the region, and it is common to meet park rangers or tourist guides who are children of former loggers or hunters.

“Being a guardian to our own community is an honor to all of us. My family reduced our livestock and started beekeeping ten years ago. Now we are happy to see more and more wildlife in our forest,” said Meng Ji, the head of the Guanba Watershed Conservation Center, a civil society organization. Meng is a ranger of the community patrolling team, and his father was a hunter before also becoming a conservation supporter.

The Guanba Protected Area was officially created in 2015, following years of conservation work led by organizations including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Conservation International, and Shan Shui Conservation Center, which was founded by Lu Zhi, a professor at Peking University. Lu is a conservation biologist and biodiversity expert who started studying pandas in the region when she was 19 years old, during the 1980s. “Now, six out of the 10 villages located in this valley are following Guanba’s model and exploring livelihoods that are eco-friendly,” said Professor Lu during a recent visit to the area.

The changes happening in the region are benefiting both the wildlife and the people living there. There is evidence that at least five giant pandas live in the Guanba area and that the population of other species, such as the Sichuan golden monkey, is growing and occupying larger areas as a result of the conservation investment.

GEF CEO and Chairperson Carlos Manuel Rodríguez talks about conservation results in Giant Panda National Park.

At the same time, the villagers' incomes have increased due to beekeeping, local cold-water fish farming, herb and walnut cultivation, as well as eco-tourism and nature education activities. And solar energy provides more than one-third of the village’s energy, allowing the villagers to reduce burning firewood for fuel.

The Shan Shui Conservation Center continues to support the implementation of community-based strategies to enhance sustainable conservation and development.

“The goal is to empower and nurture local communities to become the main force in conservation while respecting traditional wisdom and local culture,” said Shi Xiangying, Executive Director of the Shan Shui Conservation Center. The organization was among 23 winners of the GEF Inclusive Assembly Challenge Program, which provided grants to community-driven projects where Indigenous Peoples, women, girls, and young people play leadership roles in local conservation.

The Guanba village experience is just one example of what has been happening in the Giant Panda National Park, which covers 22,000 square kilometers and is more than half the size of Switzerland.

“Communities like Guanba surrounding and between nature reserves are very important to the overall conservation of giant panda habitat. These communities are now part of the newly established Giant Panda National Park, and their participation is the key to the success of conservation,” said Jiang Shiwei, the head of the Forest and Grassland Administration of Pingwu County, where Guanba is located.

The park is part of a program to reform protected areas in China, funded by the Global Environment Facility, led by China’s ministries of finance and ecology and environment, and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The goal is to improve the conservation of globally significant biodiversity through innovation in park management and legal and institutional reforms.

One of the objectives is to improve financial sustainability, with an increase of at least 30 percent in the financial resources available to protected areas in China. The measures aimed to achieve that involve diversification of funding sources, including concession arrangements and compensation for land protection and restoration.

China has been a long-term partner of the GEF, which provides grants and blended financing to developing countries seeking to adhere to international environmental conventions. Over the last 30 years, there have been more than 230 GEF-funded projects in China focused on priorities including biodiversity, energy efficiency, sustainable mobility, chemicals phase-out, food systems, and sustainable cities.

As one of the mega-diverse countries in the world, China’s domestic conservation efforts are critical to the achievement of many international environmental goals. GEF-funded projects in China over the past decade are expected to result in the creation or improved management of 3.3 million hectares of protected areas, and the restoration of 6.3 million hectares of landscapes.

GEF CEO Carlos Manuel Rodriguez and Professor Lu Zhi from Peking University, among the participants of the field visit to Giant Panda National Park. Photo credit: Sichuan Provincial Government.

“China is a very good example of how much impact is possible when environmental challenges are tackled holistically, across different government agencies such as the ministries of environment, finance, and agriculture. I saw the results of this approach in many villages, like in Guanba, in the Giant Panda National Park”, said Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, CEO and Chairperson of the GEF.