A cash-strapped Finnish zoo may have to return the giant pandas to China
HELSINKI, 27.1. (Reuters) – A cash-strapped Finnish zoo said on Friday it was preparing to return two giant pandas on loan from China because it could no longer afford to maintain them.
The pandas, named Lumi and Pyry, were brought to Finland in January 2018, nine months after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Nordic countries and signed a joint agreement on animal protection.
Ahtari Zoo, a private company that had hoped the pandas would bring visitors to central Finland, said instead that it had accumulated debt as the pandemic curbed travel.
The Finnish government, which gave a one-time grant of 200,000 euros in 2021, rejected a grant application of 5 million euros ($5.4 million).
The decision came after some MPs pointed out that the sum was higher than what the country spends each year to protect some of its own endangered species.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had established a working group to find a solution, but added that there is no certainty that one will be found.
“If the pandas were to be returned, we believe China would understand that it would be a business decision by a private company in a difficult economic situation,” a ministry spokesman said.
“We do not believe that this would have wider effects on the relations between Finland and China.”
A final decision to return the pandas will be made on February 28, the zoo said.
Giant pandas, whose black and white faces have endeared them around the world, are considered a vulnerable species, with most of their mountainous natural habitat in southwest China threatened by deforestation.
China’s modern panda diplomacy dates back to at least 1972, when it donated two giant pandas to the United States.
Reported by Essi Lehto, edited by Terje Solsvik, Anne Kauranen and Nick Macfie
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