Southwest China's Sichuan Province plans to donate 20,100 square kilometers of land to build the Giant Panda National Park, which spans three provinces, to help grow the animal's population.
The area covers over 70 percent of the province's panda reserve and 86 percent of the panda population, the Sichuan Daily reported on Wednesday. 14,400 out of 20,100 square kilometers is assigned to 1,205 wild pandas.
A Sichuan official in charge of planning said that they working on the demarcation of the land, and local governments are forbidden from adjusting or even cutting the area for the park, the report said.
Some places in Sichuan have to give the majority of their land to the park. For instance, 90 percent of Baoxing county's land has been included, an official at Sichuan's forestry bureau was quoted by Sichuan Daily as saying.
The park will cover 27,134 square kilometers covering Sichuan Province, Northwest China's Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. It will have a core area which will protect pandas in 67 reserves as well as another 8,000 endangered animals and plants.
When completed, pandas will roam freely between the current far-flung habitats. It also means people will have to move - at least 170,000 in Sichuan will have to relocate to establish the core protection area, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
"It will be a haven for biodiversity and provide protection for the whole ecological system," Xinhua quoted Hou Rong, director of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, as saying.
