As an advanced environmental protection unit ranked among the “Global 500” by the United Nations Environment Programme, the Panda Base has not only vigorously carried out scientific research and breeding of giant pandas, but also leveraged its rich science popularization education resources and talent pool to carry out conservation education and to take it as a social responsibility to spread the concept of biodiversity conservation represented by giant pandas and other rare and endangered species to the wider public in China and the world at large, making it a leading conservation education institution both at home and abroad. It has been rated as the National Research and Practice Education Base for Primary and Secondary School Students and National Popular Science Education Base, National Base for Popular Science of Ecological Environment, National Youth Science and Technology Education Base, the first batch of National Green Camps for Youth Nature Education, Chengdu Minor Socialist Core Values Practical Education Demonstration Base, and both Chengdu and Sichuan’s Advanced Base for Popular Science Education and Ecological Protection. Meanwhile, it was awarded the honorary title of National Advanced Collective of Science Popularization by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the CPC, and the China Association for Science and Technology.

Organizations and Teams

At the end of the last century, the Panda Base realized that scientific researchers and wildlife protection agencies alone were not enough to save endangered species. As education has been recognized by the world as one of the most effective means of biodiversity conservation, only through education, encouraging public participation and changes in daily behavior, can the environment be fundamentally improved.

Based on a deep understanding of the conservation situation and conservation education, the Panda Base took the lead in introducing advanced foreign conservation education concepts and methods into China’s zoos. In 2000, it established the science popularization education department and gradually equipped it with 32 staff, with 23 full-time science popularization teachers and 1 foreign environmental education expert. It is the earliest and largest education department in domestic zoos and is the first to set up a science popularization education department in China’s endangered animal conservation research institutions. For many years, the Panda Base has been cooperating with foreign zoos and environmental education institutions to introduce advanced concepts and strive to improve the team’s education capability. At present, it has launched a series of talent training projects with the Atlanta Zoo in the United States, the University of Denver in the United States, the Tourism School of the University of Queensland in Australia, and the Chester Zoo in the United Kingdom. Through various methods such as external experts hiring, international cooperation and joint training, the team has played an increasingly larger role in the preparation of teaching materials, project research, activity implementation and editing of popular science reading.

Conservation Education Resources

In order to effectively carry out research and application work on conservation education and provide favorable conditions for the conservation education team, the Panda Base has carried out a lot of work in the exploration, integration and advancement of educational resources.
In terms of hardware, it integrates and utilizes its own advantageous resources such as environment, population, scientific research, venues and tourists in giant panda conservation. For example, the Panda Base’s 233.33-hectare ecological park, the world’s largest artificial breeding population of captive giant pandas, advanced giant panda scientific research resources, and millions of domestic and foreign tourists every year have created favorable conditions for the development of conservation education. When it comes to venues, in addition to the Giant Panda Museum, an international, standardized, and modern boutique museum that integrates science popularization, public education, display, exhibit collection and protection, and academic research, it has also successively built the Panda Story Cinema, Panda Scientific Discovery Center, Panda Hospital, Giant Panda Kitchen and other venues. New platforms of conservation education have been established, such as official website www.panda.org.cn, WeChat official account “Panda Academy” and popular science books and periodicals. Additionally, experts and hardware resources from domestic and foreign cooperative units and institutions are also shared in conservation education. What’s more, in order to support the development of conservation education, the Panda Base has shown unique ingenuity in creating environmental atmosphere. It has successively designed ecological road signs, ecological and environmental protection warnings, and artificially ecological tourist rest areas. It has also built its landscape and ecology according to local conditions by newly building and renovating tourist trails, viewing spots, etc.
As for software, the Base focuses on establishing a cooperative network with domestic and foreign education and animal conservation experts and institutions, to embrace international advanced education concepts, experience and educational technology support.

Concepts and Models

The concept of conservation education serves as the soul that guides the process of conservation education. The Panda Base has long attached great importance to the update and advancement of educational concepts to prevent educational activities from becoming a mere formality due to backwardness and to avoid boring simple knowledge explanations. Given the fact that adults and children in modern society have few opportunities to get close to nature, it pays more attention to contact, interaction and practice to help establish an emotional connection between people and nature, so as to help them understand and actively partake in environmental protection actions.

To this end, the Panda Base’s conservation education team has devised a plan to educate the public from three levels through a variety of educational projects and activities. First, it spreads correct information from the consciousness level to encourage the public to pay closer attention to the status of biodiversity; second, it strikes a chord with target groups to care more about biodiversity and animal welfare; third, it motivates people to change their behaviors through concrete actions in a down-to-earth way. At the same time, different education methods are designed and tried for different targets such as children and teenagers, teachers, parents, tourists, college students, community residents, and staff in reserves. Apart from that, it also focuses on integrating the activity with school education to make conservation education a part of school moral education and social practice. A series of colorful conservation education projects carried out by the Panda Base have become vehicles for China to spread the concept of ecological protection and promote the harmonious development of human and nature.

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