China's southwestern province of Sichuan has started boundary surveying and marking of the Giant Panda National Park under its administration.

Official technical documents issued recently said survey personnel had been dispatched to core protection and controlled areas of the park to mark off the boundaries using four kinds of stakes: main entrance marks, normal stakes, boundary stakes and functional area boundary stakes.

"The boundary stakes are generally placed at turning points along the boundary line, including natural boundaries such as roads, bridges and rivers. We use stakes mainly to publicize the boundaries of this park. While the boundary tablets are mainly placed at important traffic nodes such as entrances," said Yang Zhaojun, director of construction and management department of Sichuan Provincial Administration of Giant Panda National Park.

China aims to set clear standards for the construction of national parks and form a unified management system to better conserve pandas.

"According to the state requirements, we will finish the boundary surveying and mapping work by April this year, and try our best to fully complete all tasks of installing boundary stakes and markers before the end of the year, to put the park's boundary and scope granted by the state authority on real hills and lands," said Yang.

The Giant Panda National Park has an area of 27,134 square kilometers and spans the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi, with about 74 percent of the area in Sichuan Province. Its official setup was announced at the leaders' summit of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in October 2021.

Reports said the Giant Panda National Park homes 1,631 wild pandas, accounting for more than 70 percent of the country's wild giant panda population. Aside from the giant pandas, the park is also home to such highly protected animals as the snub-nosed monkey. Since the establishment of the Giant Panda National Park management system, wild giant pandas have seen a steady increase in number and have become better connected in their habitats.

(Cover image via CFP)

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