Sichuan to Build a Panda National Park Three Times the Size of Yellowstone

Pandas

With a poverty-alleviation funding of over 10 billion Yuan (USD 1.58 billion) from the Bank of China Sichuan Branch, China’s Sichuan province government is planning to build a Giant Panda National Park three times the size of the U.S. Yellowstone National Park.

According to the World Wildlife Foundation, Pandas are slow breeders and their numbers can quickly drop if their way of life is disrupted. The park will hopefully help recover the endangered species while benefiting the low-income local residents financially.

Zhang Weichao, a Sichuan official involved in the park planning, told the state-run China Daily that the agreement will help alleviate poverty among the 170,000 people living within the project’s proposed territory.

*China National Tourist Office www.cnto.org/