Participants attending the 30th Session of the World Heritage Committee to be held in Vilnius, Lithuania, from July 8 to 16 will examine and consider China's bid to list its giant panda habitat in Sichuan Province as a UNESCO World Heritage site, West China City Daily reported on June 19.

Liu Jixiang, director of the provincial administrative office for World Heritage, said on June 18 that preparatory work for the bid had gone smoothly. Liu will lead the Chinese delegation to Vilnius on July 3. "If we win the bid, the giant panda habitat will become the province's fifth listed site. We are confident that the bid will be successful," Liu said.

The 18-member Chinese delegation includes officials from the World Heritage provincial administrative office and experts in giant panda research. At the conference, they will have to answer questions put forward by the committee and present arguments in support of their bid, collectively known as "Sichuan Giant Pandas and Their Habitat."

The four World Heritage sites in Sichuan Province are the Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area, Huanglong Scenic Area, Mount Emei and the Leshan Giant Buddha, and Mount Qingcheng and Dujiangyan Irrigation System.

The giant panda habitat is a huge area located between the Dadu River and the Minshan mountain range. It stretches 180 kilometers from north to south, and between 40 and 70 kilometers from east to west. It straddles 12 counties in four cities, namely Chengdu, Ya'an, Aba and Ganzi.

After years of study and evaluation, Chinese experts proposed that the vast area encircled by the Qionglai (also known as Wolong), Siguniang (meaning "four girls" in Chinese), and Jiajin mountain ranges be put forward for World Heritage protection. The habitat contains nine scenic spots and eight nature reserves, covering an area of 9,510 square kilometers.

Since the bid was put forward in early 2001, the provincial government has worked hard to strengthen environmental protection efforts in the province, especially in Chengdu and Ya'an cities where the giant panda habitat is located.

Companies and construction projects within nature reserves that do not meet set environment-friendly criteria have been barred from operating or shut down. 

Abandoned construction projects include three power stations in Chengdu, and those that were shut down include 68 coalmines and enterprises in Chengdu, and 10 in Ya'an.

If this bid is successful, the habitat area could be extended to the Minshan, Liangshan, Xiangling and Qinling mountains in the future, Liu added.

Liu explained that this would be done to make the pandas' living space less scattered. Currently, pandas essentially live on mountain "islands". Putting the entire area under protection will help to encourage a more complete eco-system. 

(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong, June 25, 2006)