Expeditions to search for wild pandas organized by a company in southwest China have sparked a debate over environmental protection.
The tour organizers boast that customers will see wild or semi-wild pandas in Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province, according to Aba State Jiuzhai Wolong Giant Panda Industry Co. Ltd., a local company selling panda-related trip services.
Travelers are allowed to spend two and a half hours in a 15 hectare "search circle" looking for a 26-year-old panda, for a fee of 360 yuan (45 U.S. dollars).
The company limits the number of travelers to 20 each day, with a maximum of five persons at one time.
However, ecologists argue that visitors' invasion will damage the pandas' habitat.
"If garbage is not dealt with and visitors are not supervised properly, the search trips are sure to do harm to the pandas," said Zhu Xiaojian, professor of panda protection at Beijing University.
"Car horns and people's voices can scare pandas away," said Tang Chunxiang, an expert with the panda and wild animal protection centre in the university.
But the tour company claimed that all visitors are given environmental protection training and sign an agreement to search along the designated route before beginning the trip.
"They are asked to pick garbage up along the way and to take their own rubbish away," the company was quoted as saying by Beijing Youth Daily.
Residents in Wolong Nature Reserve hope to boost local tourism to improve their lifestyle.
"There are about 5,000 people living in the reserve, most of whom are poor people from Tibetan and Qiang minority groups," said Zhang Liming, vice director of the reserve.
According to the Wolong administration office, the panda search tour area will be limited to 20 square kilometers, about one percent of the total area of the reserve.
The Wolong Nature Reserve is the largest panda reserve in the world with 98 raised pandas, as well as 16 cubs born in 2005. The reserve was listed as a World Heritage site in July this year.
Experts had previously estimated that there were 1,590 wild giant pandas in China, but Chinese and British scientists announced in June that there could be as many as 3,000 after a survey used a new method.
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Director: Liu Chi