As an applicant of the world natural heritage family, the Sichuan Giant Panda Habitat will be a major topic of the 30th World Heritage Congress, which is to be held between July 8th and 16th in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania.
At the Congress participants will discuss and vote on if the Habitat can be listed as a world natural heritage. Since 1989, the Habitat has been trying to be designated with the world title, but has failed many times due to the 25th World Heritage Committee's regulation that every country can only submit one application for the world heritage family every year. In 2004 the 28th World Heritage Congress announced a new resolution that a country would be allowed to submit two applications including one for the world natural heritage.
Located between the Dadu River and Minshan Mountains, the Sichuan Giant Panda Habitat covers an area totaling 9,510 kilometers encompassing four cities or autonomous prefectures and twelve counties, including Chengdu, Ya'an, A'ba and Ganzi.
So far, Sichuan has had four world heritage sites including Mt. Qingcheng-Dujiangyan Irrigation System, Mt. Emei-Leshan Giant Buddha, Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong. If the panda habitat application is successful, the province will have the most world heritage sites in China.
In another development, Chengdu Weekly will publish a special issue on the giant panda and its habitat, scientific research and protection at the end of this month, which will be given to all participants of the upcoming 30th World Heritage Congress in Lithuania.