China's Giant Panda National Park signs memorandum with two UK national parks

This photo taken on Oct. 8, 2023 shows giant panda Xiang Xiang at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Base in Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province. Female giant panda Xiang Xiang met the public at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Base in Ya'an on Sunday. The panda left Ueno Zoo in Tokyo of Japan on Feb. 21, 2023 and flied back to China, her home country. (Photo: Xinhua)

China's Giant Panda National Park on Tuesday signed a memorandum with two UK national parks to strengthen cooperation on the capacity of building and protecting national parks, as well as educating the public. The signing of the memorandum came as British public say goodbye to the only giant pandas in the UK who are set to return to China in early December.

The Chengdu bureau of the Giant Panda National Park administration signed the memorandum with UK's Lake District National Park, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, according to media reports.

The signing of the memorandum will be the beginning of more cooperation, and we believe that the British side can help provide better solutions, said Tim Standbrook, Deputy Consul-General of the British Consulate-General in Chongqing at the signing ceremony.

Standbrook said that the national giant panda conservation has realized significant achievements in protecting the increasing population, promoting interconnected ecological systems, and rural revitalization. The current period is a time for exploration on how to further improve China-UK relations, and this collaboration demonstrates the value of cooperation between the two countries in the face of global challenges, he noted.

"The signing of the memorandum will further strengthen the cooperation between China and the UK in terms of resources, capabilities, willingness, and determination," said Zhang Zhihe, deputy director of the Chengdu bureau of the Giant Panda National Park administration.

"The national giant panda conservation is China's first group of national parks, with the protection of wild giant panda population and their habitats as well as landscape conservation as its core, and it has become an important window to showcase China's image," said Zhang.

On Tuesday afternoon, a group of experts from the UK's national parks authority and the London Zoological Society conducted a field visit to the Dayi area of the national giant panda conservation in order to visit and understand the natural habitat of giant pandas.

Previously, the UK has collaborated with the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park in south China's Hainan Province, to establish corridors to expand the habitat of the endangered Hainan Gibbon, and currently, the population has stabilized and even seen growth, according to one of the experts, noting that the current practice can be further promoted in the Giant Panda National Park to benefit giant pandas and other rare species.

The cooperation between UK's national parks with the Giant Panda National Park comes at a time when British people are saying goodbye to the only Pandas in the UK as they will soon be returned to China.

Yang Guang and Tian Tian have lived at Edinburgh Zoo since 2011 as part of a 10-year agreement between the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and the China Wildlife Conservation Association.

RZSS Chief Executive David Field said: "With more than a million species at risk of extinction and our natural world in crisis, Yang Guang and Tian Tian have had an incredible impact by inspiring millions of people to care about nature.

"Through scientific research by our expert veterinary and keeper teams, working alongside the University of Edinburgh, we have made a significant contribution to our understanding around giant panda fertility, husbandry, and veterinary care - which has been of real benefit to efforts to protect this amazing species in China.