CWCA, National Zoo Signs Giant Panda Letter of IntentSmithsonian National Zoo has signed a letter of intent with the China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) regarding a long-term giant panda loan.Lawrence M. Small, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, announced the news at a press conference in Washington Tuesday. Small said he was delighted to report that. The CWCA will loan to the National Zoo for ten years a pair of giant pandas for study, breeding, and exhibition. The male and female will be captive-born and pre-reproductive. Small said the letter of intent was signed last Friday in Beijing by McKinley Hudson, the zoo's deputy director, and Wan Fuxing, Secretary General of CWCA. The National Zoo agreed to contribute to the CWCA one million US dollars per year for 10 years to support China's National Project for the Conservation of the Giant Panda and its Habitat. The zoo also agreed to provide an additional one-time contribution to CWCA for each offspring produced by the pair. CWCA will retain ownership of the panda pair and any offspring born during the term of the loan. The zoo's Panda House has been empty since November 1999, when one of the giant pandas Hsing-Hsing was euthanized while suffering from terminal kidney disease. Its partner Ling-Ling died in 1992. Both were given to the United States by China in 1972 as a friendship symbol between the two countries' peoples. |
| Please visit People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/ |