Black, white and endangered
Papier mache pandas cover the ground at Sanam Luang in the ‘1600 Pandas + World Tour in Thailand’ campaign to raise funds to save pandas and other endangered animals.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Thailand hopes its “save the panda” campaign will help protect endangered animals in the country.
The “1,600 Pandas + World Tour in Thailand” campaign, consisting of 1,600 papier mache pandas, kicked off in Sanam Luang yesterday. Yowalak Thiarachow, WWF country director, said funds raised from the campaign will be used to help other endangered animals in Thailand.
“Funds we receive from the programme will help us save remaining populations of Bengal tigers and elephants which are now on the brink of extinction,” she told the Bangkok Post.
The number of panda sculptures, in various sizes, poses and emotions, represents the number of pandas in the world today. They were designed out of recycled paper by French artist Paulo Grangeon.
The sculptures arrived in Bangkok as part of a world tour that seeks raise awareness on panda conservation and environmental preservation.
Thailand has two real pandas, Xuang Xuang and Lin Hui, at Chiang Mai Zoo. The animals are on loan from China until 2023.
But the country is facing shrinking numbers of other wild animals and the WWF pointed to Bengal tigers and wild elephants as its prime concern in the country.
According to its recent survey, the number of wild tigers in Thailand has fallen to 200, down from 250 in 2012. The number of wild elephants remained at 3,000, it added. The number of wild elephants is in line with a report by the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, which puts the figure at between 2,000 and 3,000.
The panda campaign is joined by volunteers including Khemwalai Theerasuwanajak, a 30-year-old PhD student at Mahidol University. Ms Khemwalai said her job is to explain the event’s purpose to visitors and take care of the pandas on display.
“Many visitors ask why we display pandas, so I tell them because the panda has been the WWF’s logo since its founding in 1961 and pandas are cute,” she said.
The main exhibition will be held at Central Embassy which joined the Tourism Authority of Thailand and City Hall in organising the display.
From Sanam Luang, the display will move to Central World and other locations, ending at Central Embassy from March 24 to April 10.