Worldwide Panda Competition

China recently held a worldwide competition for a lucky few to become “Pambassadors” (Panda Ambassadors). 62,000 people from 50 countries submitted online applications for the once in a lifetime chance to both work with Giant Pandas and help promote their cause.

On September 25, China chose 12 semi-finalists to come to Chengdu in South West China for one week of intense training before the 6 winners are chosen. Throughout this first week, the prospective “Pambassadors” will learn about threats to the Panda’s existence, study their habitats, prepare their food, and even clean the Panda’s enclosures. The final test to determine the winners will consist of a question and answer session, building a Panda Ladder (a favorite of those in captivity), and a creative presentation to show the semi-finalists’ personalities.

The six winners will spend one month learning even more skills through the nursing of Panda cubs before returning to their home countries to educate their country on Panda conservation. Furthermore, Bernama.com, the Malaysian National News Agency, writes that “The six ‘pambassadors’ will spend a month working as panda keepers in Chengdu, China and blog about their experiences at pandahome.com in an effort to raise awareness of the endangered animals’ plight.”

This worldwide panda competition is titled “Project Panda” and was “launched by Chengdu research base in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature,” (Bernama.com) also known as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the United States.

According to the WWF, there has been recent success in the fight to save the Panda. For example, WWF highlights three major areas that have seen recent improvement:

• Panda habitat is increasing with the development of new reserves and green corridors.
• Some threats to panda survival such as poaching and illegal logging have been significantly reduced.
• Community development projects to help people sustainably coexist with pandas have been very positive.

However, despite recent success, the Panda remains on the ICUN’s Red List as an endangered species.

Maybe these six chosen Panda Ambassadors can take their love of the species and transform it into education and awareness. As “Pambassadors,” it will be their responsibility to note the various problems facing the Panda and go even further to offer possible solutions to the world audience.

If each “Pambassador” can inspire their own country to fight just a bit harder for the restoration of the Panda then maybe the world can look beyond political agendas in the name of conservation and operate for a united purpose: To Save the Giant Panda!

To view news footage of this story reported by Clarissa Ward, see Good Morning America.