I have developed some personal views about your article, and I’m writing this letter to you in order to discuss these opinions.
When you said that we should leave pandas to extinction, and spend money on protecting the biodiversity of the planet, I’m not against it at all, because you are right and as you said, the ‘single-species conservation’ is indeed out of date. We should be helping all of the world’s species.
From all the efforts we have done to save one particular species, whether it is through legal means, artificial insemination or bodyguards, ans so on, building natural reserves has work out the best. We mark an area that the species lives in, and ban all human activities within that area. In other words, we protects an entire habitat. Because giant pandas are found all around the Qinling area, which is the ideal habitat for thousands of species, from porcupine to golden monkey, white-winged bat to chinchilla, this makes pandas a perfect umbrella species, protecting large amount of species by just protecting the habitat of one.
Although, a natural reserve expanding thousands square miles where there is no human activities to disturb the peaceful way of living of the wild animals sounds very attractive, it comes at a high price. Leave alone the value of the land itself in the world that space is becoming short of luxury, but also the value under the surface we have to give up. Take the QinLing regin for example, mass amount of gold, silver, cole, vanadium，aluminium, and zinc are berried deep inside of the mountains. A natural reserve can put an end to all access to those resources. So if the government is going to sacrifice so much to protect the habitat of thousands of lives, they need a way to minimise their lost or even make profit from the reserve.
And you have came up with the perfect solution,” it’s easier to raise money for something fluffy. Charismatic megafauna like the panda do appeal to people’s emotional side, and attract a lot of public attention.” Tourists around the hole world come to visit the zoos and natural reserves bring profits measured in millions dollars a year to the country. Just by renting pandas to other countries the Chinese government gets payed eight hundred thousands dollars a year for each panda. Though it may sounds not much compared to the potential mineral profit, renting pandas have other benefits mines can not offer. The Chinese government rents out pandas to other countries as an political means to show it’s friendly attitude.
Wild pandas are at the verge of extinction just a few years ago. Less than two thousands wild pandas are left around the world, and they will go extinct very soon if nothing is done.
This will not just be an another huge tragic story to be record in the not so beautiful history of mankind, it will also have an serious negative impact on the our confidence of protecting the fragile environment that we live in. As the symbol of WWF( World Wildlife Fund), pandas represents our ambition to limit the impact of human activities on nature, if the symbol of such organization went extinct doesn't that gives people an impression that we can’t do anything to protect our home planet?
The most important and the only one that i absolutely disagree with you, pandas actually are not weak at all, we fragmented their habitat that is why there is so little of them now days. They die periodically, and rarely breed because in their natural habitat they do not have any threats from ant predators, they are the strongest around the neighborhood, they only eat bamboos because it is the food that they can access easily. They fit their habitat perfectly, and now you are saying that they do not fit in the environment when us, humans destroyed them all. It si like you burnt down someone's house in the winter and call them weak when they freeze to death. We destroyed pandas habitat, we have the responsibility to save them.
I’m not playing god, nor i’m playing god’s accountant, i’m just a guy who cares about all animal lifes and tell you that no species should be left to extinction, all life deserves to live.
Yours sincerely,
YuXiang Ren
Epsom College In Malaysia