Preserving More Habitat for Giant Pandas Is Having a Giant Payoff

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Saving the giant panda from extinction isn’t just good for the bears1大熊貓屬于熊科，故此處被稱為“熊”。—it’s good for the bottom line2經濟術語。指“經濟利潤”，因常出現于財務報表的最后一行而得名。too, a new analysis by an international team of scientists shows.

[2]The results, published in the journalCurrent Biology, highlight the economic benef i ts that they say go hand in hand with environmental conservation.

“Our analyses indicate that further investment in panda protection can be a beneficial strategy for both people and pandas,”the study authors wrote.

[3]Giant pandas, known officially as Ailuropoda melanoleuca, are the rarest of the bear species.They make their homes in the mountainous bamboo forests of western China.With their fuzzy faces,black-and-white markings and toddling gait, they may also be the most beloved—long lines are known to form at the panda exhibits in American zoos, which often set up“panda cams”for viewers to check in on the animals from afar.

[4]But pandas have fallen on hard times in recent decades, thanks largely to human encroachment3encroachment逐步侵犯（權利）；逐漸干擾（工作）。.In 1980, their habitat covered 40,599 square kilometers; by 1990, it had been cut to just 12,340.This is a major threat to the bears in large part because bamboo, their main food source, is so low in nutrients that each bear must roam a lot of land in order to find and eat enough of it.

[5]In that single decade, their numbers plummeted from 2,459 to just 1,112.The U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service declared the giant panda an endangered species in 1984, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List4世界自然保護聯盟瀕危物種紅色名錄（IUCN Red List of Threatened Species或稱 IUCN紅色名錄）于1963年開始編制，是全球動植物物種保護現狀最全面的名錄，也被認為是生物多樣性狀況最具權威的指標。followed suit in 1990.

[6]Panda habitat had not just shrunk—it became fragmented, making it harder for the bears to move to new areas to find food and seek mates.This is a particular problem for pandas, who breed infrequently, making it much more difficult for their populations to recover.

[7]Chinese officials have made significant efforts to save the panda from extinction.They’ve established more panda reserves and increased the reserve area 3 1/2-fold from 1980 to 2010.

[8]Panda numbers gradually began to recover, hitting 1,596 in 2000 and 1,864 in 2010.In 2016, the IUCN Red List reclassified the panda from endangered to vulnerable.

“It is clear that society’s investment has started to pay off in terms of panda population recovery,”wrote the study authors, a team from China and several other countries.

[9]The researchers pointed to many benef i ts that pandas bring to the world’s proverbial table5bring to the table提供；帶來。proverbial眾所周知；著名。.“Its unrivaled public appeal translates into support for conservation funding and policy, including a tax on foreign visitors to support its conservation,”they wrote.

[10]In addition, the biodiversity of Chinese panda reserves was“among the highest in the temperate world.”“The panda is thus also an umbrella species6指生存環境需求能夠涵蓋許多其他物種生存環境需求的物種，對該物種的保護也為其他物種提供了保護傘。—protecting panda habitat also protects other species,”they wrote.

[11]The scientists sought to calculate the economic value that panda conservation generates, using a framework called the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services.

[12]In order to protect giant pandas,the government must protect their forests, which provide a host of often-underappreciated services to the communities that live in and around them.For example, forests allow for the growing of crops and the grazing of animals,store and clean fresh water, and supply firewood, lumber and many useful plants.They manage storm runoff7runoff徑流量。, sequester8sequester使隔離，使分離。carbon in the ground and help prevent erosion.

[13]The pandas themselves also hold enormous cultural value that has risen meteorically in recent decades among Chinese residents, the study authors pointed out.

“From 1980 to 2010, the cultural values of pandas...and their reserves almost doubled, largely driven by human population increases,”they wrote.“Tourism use values grew rapidly, rising 500-fold from 1980 to 2010.”

[14]Taking all of these factors into account, the scientists calculated a median economic value of about $632 per hectare per year for the ecosystem services provided by these forests.Ex-tended over the forested area in the 67 panda reserves in China, and added to the estimated $709 million from pandas’cultural value, this comes out to a total of approximately $2.6 billion in 2010.

[15]Keep in mind, the costs of preserving panda habitat at current levels come to about $255 million—meaning that the economic benefits outweigh the costs at a ratio of about 10 to 1.The study authors said that including the global cultural value of the animals would increase the total economic value to $6.9 billion per year—or about 27 times the cost of habitat preservation.

[16]The researchers also noted that proximity to panda reserves produces an 8% better increase in annual farmer incomes relative to the provinces as a whole.

[17]The findings provide a promising example of how conservation efforts can pay off, could be applied to many other threatened and endangered species.■

一支國際科學家團隊的最新研究表明，拯救瀕臨滅絕的大熊貓不僅對大熊貓來說是件好事，而且還具有經濟價值。

[2]該研究成果發表在《當代生物學》雜志上，強調環境保護會相應帶來經濟效益。

該文作者認為：“我們的分析表明，對保護大熊貓的進一步投入將會使人類和大熊貓雙雙受益。”

[3]大熊貓（拉丁學名：Ailuropoda melanoleuca）屬于熊科，是該科動物中最稀有的物種，主要棲息在中國西部山區竹林中。大熊貓毛色黑白相間，長著毛茸茸的臉，走起來憨態可掬，因此備受人們喜愛：據說在美國的動物園里，觀看大熊貓的隊伍常排成長龍。動物園因此開通了“大熊貓網絡直播”以便人們能遠程在線觀看大熊貓。

[4]但近幾十年來，大熊貓的生存陷入困境，這在很大程度上要歸咎于人類的不斷侵擾。1980年，大熊貓棲息地面積為40599平方千米，而到1990年，僅剩12340平方千米。棲息地的縮減嚴重威脅大熊貓的生存。這主要是因為，竹子是大熊貓的主要食物來源，而竹子的營養成分很低；要想吃飽，每只大熊貓都需要游走很大的范圍來尋找竹子。

[5]在1980到1990這10年間，大熊貓的數量從2459只銳減到1112只。美國魚類和野生動植物管理局于1984年宣布大熊貓為瀕危物種，1990年大熊貓進入世界自然保護聯盟瀕危物種紅色名錄。

[6]大熊貓棲息地不僅面積縮小了，而且呈碎片狀分布。這使得大熊貓愈發難以遷移到其他地區尋找食物和配偶。對于繁殖率低的大熊貓來說，這個問題尤為突出，其種群數量因此更加難以回升。

[7]中國政府為拯救瀕臨滅絕的大熊貓做出了巨大努力，建立了更多的大熊貓保護區，自1980年到2010年將保護區的面積增加了3.5倍。

[8]大熊貓的數量逐漸開始回升：2000年為1596只，2010年達到1864只。2016年，世界自然保護聯盟瀕危物種紅色名錄將大熊貓受威脅等級從“瀕危”下調為“易危”。

“很明顯，社會投入已經開始獲得回報，大熊貓的數量在回升。”該團隊在研究中指出。該團隊由中國科學家和其他幾個國家的科學家組成。

[9]該研究團隊指出，大熊貓給我們所熟知的這個世界帶來了諸多益處：“大熊貓對公眾無可匹敵的吸引力轉化成了人們對保護大熊貓的資金投入和政策支持。比如，對外國游客征稅以支持保護大熊貓。”

[10]此外，中國大熊貓保護區的生物多樣性居熱帶地區前列。該研究認為：“大熊貓因此也是一種傘護種——保護大熊貓棲息地不僅保護了大熊貓這種物種，也保護了棲息地中其他物種。”

[11]該研究團隊利用“國際生態系統服務分類體系”來計算保護大熊貓所產生的經濟價值。

[12]為保護大熊貓，政府必須保護大熊貓生存其間的林地，這些林地可為居住其間或周邊的社區提供眾多服務，而這些服務常被低估。例如，林地可供種植作物、放牧、儲存和清潔淡水，還能提供木柴、木材和許多有用植物。森林還能調節暴雨徑流、分離土壤中的碳，并有助于防止土壤侵蝕。

[13]該研究指出，大熊貓本身還具有巨大的文化價值。近幾十年來，其文化價值在中國居民中迅速提升。

“從1980年到2010年，大熊貓的文化價值與其保護區面積都幾乎翻了一番，這主要是受人口增長的驅動。”該研究指出，“其用于旅游的價值快速增長，從1980年到2010年增長了500倍。”

[14]綜合以上因素，科學家們計算出了大熊貓棲息地森林所提供的生態系統服務經濟價值中位數約為每年每公頃632美元。中國有67個大熊貓保護區的森林資源，從大熊貓的文化價值中又可獲得約7.09億美元的收益，兩者相加，2010年中國從保護大熊貓中可獲得約26億美元的收益。

[15]要知道，目前在現有水平上保護大熊貓棲息地的成本約為2.55億美元。這意味著保護大熊貓棲息地所獲得的經濟收益是投入成本的10倍左右。該研究團隊指出，如果再加上大熊貓的全球文化價值，每年總經濟收益將達到69億美元，約為棲息地保護成本的27倍。

[16]研究人員還指出，靠近大熊貓保護區的農民年收入與全省平均年收入相比高出了8%。

[17]以上研究發現很好地例證了自然保護工作如何獲得回報。該研究發現可應用于許多其他受威脅和瀕危物種的保護工作。□