By Wendy Ander

Listed as Endangered since 1990, the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is now listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the group that assesses and catalogues plants and animals facing a high risk of global extinction.

In a recent update of their Red List of Threatened Species, the IUCN says the Giant Panda’s population has grown due to effective forest protection and reforestation by the Chinese government to conserve this species.

However, said the IUCN this week, “Climate change is predicted to eliminate more than 35 percent of the Panda’s bamboo habitat in the next 80 years, and thus the Giant Panda population is projected to decline, reversing the gains made during the last two decades.”

The conservation group said that to protect this iconic species as it expands its range and numbers, effective forest protection measures must be continued, and emerging threats be quickly addressed. China’s plans to expand existing conservation policy for the species is a positive step, said the IUCN, and must be strongly supported to ensure its effective implementation.

The IUCN has monitored species for their vulnerability for the past 50 years. In 1965 they listed the Giant Panda as “Very rare but believed to be stable or increasing.” The Giant Panda then moved up from Rare to Endangered in 1990 as its population began to rebound.

Once poorly understood, the Giant Panda received an explosion of scientific interest across many disciplines in recent decades. This knowledge, said the IUCN, has increasingly been applied to management and policy decisions.

The Chinese government was described by the IUCN as feeling proud of the increasing protection of the Giant Panda, and plans to continue investing in habitat protection, population monitoring, and protection patrols, and to further develop capacity of nature reserve staff.

Who knows? One day the Giant Panda may move off the Red List entirely.