The construction of a national highway 23 years ago separated the two largest giant panda populations in the Qinling Mountains of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The China Program of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Forestry Department of Shaanxi Province yesterday launched a program to build an ecological corridor to reunite the two isolated panda populations.

Rangers from the Mount Guanyinshan Provincial Nature Reserve of Shaanxi and 30 WWF volunteers planted bamboo on top of the 1,900-metre-long Qinling Tunnel during the launch ceremony.

In the next two months, they will plant 87 hectares of bamboo on the slopes overlooking the tunnel.

The tunnel, completed in 1999, led to the abandonment of a 13-kilometre section of the highway, and created the possibility of reconnecting the fragmented habitats of the giant pandas in Mount Tianhuashan, where there are approximately 20 animals, and Mount Xinglongling, where there are about 110.

In 2000, the area along the abandoned road was listed by the province as one of the key ecological corridors for giant pandas in the Qinling Mountains. It was put under state protection in 2002. At the same time, the Guanyinshan reserve was established.

In 2005, WWF conducted a socio-economic survey and worked out the threats to giant pandas in the area. In September 2005, the international conservation organization started cooperation with the nature reserve to begin restoring the giant panda habitat in the area. The project launched yesterday is part of this effort.

"The project is an active and valuable attempt by WWF and our partners to connect the fragmented panda habitats in the Qinling Mountains," said Dermot O'Gorman, representative of the WWF China Program.

"We hope the green bamboo corridor can connect the panda populations separated by the highway, free the animal from human and traffic disturbance, and bring new hope to the conservation of wild giant pandas in Qinling."

(China Daily May 15, 2006)