When it comes to giant panda protection, climate change can be seen as a black-and-white issue.

 

A lighting manufacturer yesterday signed an agreement with the Wolong Panda Club of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (WPC, CCRCGP) to adopt three one-year-old pandas, donate 100,000 yuan ($13,100) worth of lighting equipment for their habitat at the center and establish a "Care for the Pandas Fund".

 

The three cuddly creatures - Ouou, Sisi and Langlang, who live at the center's Wolong Reserve in Sichuan Province - are named after OSRAM China Lighting Ltd's Chinese pronunciation and are intended to remind consumers who they are protecting when they purchase environmentally friendly products.

 

"It's a reminder that good climate for the pandas is good climate for you and me," said the president of OSRAM China, Lars Johnsen. "Raising awareness about climate protection is an essential aspect of protecting giant pandas."

 

Langlang is the only male and is Sisi's twin. Visitors to the center can visit the creatures and netizens can log on to OSRAM's website to watch them frolic, munch bamboo and snooze in their homes, which is monitored by video cameras 24 hours a day.

 

The company also plans to start a panda blog, where netizens can share stories about, and photos of, Ouou, Sisi and Langlang.

 

For every purchase of one of OSRAM's environmentally friendly products, the company will donate 10 cents to the newly founded "Panda Love Fund", which will provide necessities for the pandas at the center in addition to supporting research. Lucky buyers can also win a trip - with travel and accommodation paid - to the center where they would get to play with and feed the three pandas.

 

"This partnership can create a call for human beings to care and increase their concern for the environment," the director of the Beijing Energy Saving Office, Liu Qianguang, said.

 

Wang Pengyan, deputy director-general of the Wolong National Nature Reserve Administration, said the center had only eight pandas when it opened and now has more than 120 because of an increasing number of donations and adoptions.

 

"Raising a baby panda is very difficult," he said. "Now, we can be sure these pandas grow up to be healthy and strong."

 

The installation of the lighting equipment in the habitat - completed yesterday - is intended to raise awareness of the environmental benefits of using compact fluorescent lighting technology over general lighting service (GLS) illumination.

 

"Globally, if you go from the current GLS to compact fluorescent lighting, you could save about 460 billion kWh," Johnsen said. "If you take those lamps and replace them, you could save the equivalent of 2.7 percent the amount of power produced by the Three Gorges Dam Project."

 

(China Daily by By Erik Nilsson July 20, 2007)