Problems

Ongoing threats to the panda's survival

Despite the conservation success in the panda's habitat in recent years problems still persist.

The major factors contributing to habitat loss and fragmentation — the most pressing threats to the giant panda — are:

• conversion of forests to agricultural areas,
• medicinal herb collection,
• bamboo harvesting,
• poaching, and
• large-scale development activities such as road construction, hydropower development, and mining.

The illegal wildlife trade and the natural phenomenon of bamboo die-back are also threats.

Because of China's dense and growing human population, many panda populations are isolated in narrow belts of bamboo no more than 1.2km wide — and panda habitat is continuing to disappear as settlers push higher up the mountain slopes.