WWFcelebrates50yearswith1-600paperpandas.doc

WWF celebrates 50 years with 1,600 paper pandas
(★★ Words: about 330; Time: 5.5 minutes)
The members of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) placed about 1,600 giant pandas made of paper by the Lake Geneva, Switzerland, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the conservation (保护) organization.
For 50 years, WWF has been protecting the future of nature as the world’s leading conservation organization. WWF’s work is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity (多样性) of life on Earth.
The giant panda has been the WWF’s symbol since 1961, the year when WWF was founded. The well-known giant panda symbol was from a panda named Chi Chi that was carried from the Beijing Zoo to the London Zoo in the same year of the establishment of WWF. When WWF needed a symbol, Chi Chi, the only giant panda in the Western world as an endangered species had won the hearts of all that saw her. She was a rare animal, like her wild panda cousins in China, and her form and color were the ideal basis for an attractive symbol.
In 2008, the French section of the WWF had displayed 1,600 pandas, the number that was said to be the survivors of their species in China then, in different places in France, calling on people to change the worsening environment.
The panda survey in the 1980s found around 1,100 giant pandas in the wild. There are less than 2,500 mature giant pandas in the wild at present according to the WWF. Experts at the WWF believe that the difference is due more to better counting methods than to pandas living in a better environment. Deforestation (毁林) and continued illegal hunts are factors to threaten the future of the species.
The giant panda is the rarest member of the bear family and among the world’s most threatened animals. It is universally loved. Great progresses have been made in recent years to conserve the giant pandas. By 2005, our government had established over 50 panda reserves, protecting more than 60 percent of the population.

From: http://www.worldwildlife.org