Successful efforts in preventing extinction

In 2004 survey, 1,600 pandas were counted- 40% more than were thought to exist in the 1980s.The WWF succeeded in halting the decline of the panda. It is because the conservation solutions to save the species are working - and, after years of decline, panda numbers are thought to be increasing.WWF has been working closely with the Chinese government in the Qinling and Minshan Mountains, key landscapes for the panda, and the projects implemented in these areas to save the panda are working. Some significant effects from the efforts done are the panda habitat is increasing with the development of new reserves and green corridors. Threats to panda survival such as poaching and illegal logging have been significantly reduced in order support the efforts done to halt the decline of panda. However, the panda is still classified as endangered, as its numbers remain low, despite the recent increase, and threats to its survival remain.

Africa celebrates return of the rhino

WWF's Africa Rhino Programme (ARP) was unveiled in 1997, when black rhino populations were at less than 3000 and falling in just a fraction of their former range. Now IUCN calculates populations of both black and white rhinos are growing healthily and the ARP is looking to re-introduce rhinos to more of the areas from which they have disappeared. Africa’s woodlands and savannahs once teemed with more than a million black and white rhinos, but populations were decimated after a century and a half of depredations by European game hunters and by poachers supplying markets for rhino horn dagger handles and supposed medicinal ingredients. One sub-species of black rhino is thought extinct and only a few individuals of northern white rhino remain. The southern white rhino was thought extinct until the chance discovery of a remnant population in the late 19th century but has now come back from the brink. Black rhinos numbers continued to decline through to the 1990s, despite bans on trade in rhino horn products and a "critically endangered" listing from IUCN. In 1997, there were 8,466 white rhinos and 2,599 black rhinos remaining in the wild. Today, there are 14,500 white rhinos and nearly 4,000 of the more endangered black rhinos. The species’ decline has been stopped through effective monitoring and increased security - and the engagement and commitment of communities and governments.