A Sichuan citizen's proposal to protect pandas will be considered in this year's legislation plan by the southwest China province's legislative body, the provincial People's Congress.

The Congress solicited ideas for laws from citizens last December for the first time in the province's history. The law committee of the Congress selected 13 out of 411 proposals from local people as worth considering, according to official sources.

Tan Zuoren, a member of the non-government environmental protection organization "Green River," proposed that the province, home to 80 percent of China's pandas, not only should ban trading in the endangered species but should also stop exchanging pandas as gifts or leasing them for exhibition.

Tan proposed that only short-term leases of up to two years should be permitted if necessary.

There are some 20 nature reserves involving giant panda protection in Sichuan and the province is regarded as the last home of pandas in China.

(Xinhua News Agency January 7, 2003)