by
LiveScience Staff
Date:
08 February 2013 Time: 06:28 PM ET
There
are thought to be fewer than 1,600 giant pandas in the wild today and the
beloved bears' home in the mountains of China is increasingly threatened by
climate change and human activity.
While
China has made achievements in saving the pandas in
recent years, a group of conservations says the government's plans to free up
forests for commercial use could be a blow to the endangered species.
"This
change puts these vital habitats potentially under threat from commercial
logging, increased collection of firewood and non-timber forest products by
outside enterprises, and other commercial development activities," Russell
Mittermeier, president of environmental organization Conservation International,
said in a statement.
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