American zoos have sent tens of millions of dollars to China under the Endangered Species Act in what some have referred to as “panda diplomacy” over the past few decades. In exchange for the large amounts of money, China ships pandas, in pairs, to American zoos. The National Zoo in Washington and the San Diego Zoo are among them.
The money, by U.S. law, is supposed to be spent on protecting pandas in the wild. However, a New York Times investigation of thousands of pages of documents and interviews with dozens of witnesses indicates China has spent a lot of that money on things such as roads, apartment buildings and museums. In addition, China refused to explain where all the money goes.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oversees the American payments. It raised concerns with American zoo officials and froze payments on a few occasions. But zoo managers worried if the agency cut off payment to China, the Chinese would want their pandas back.
Such a move would cost American zoos revenue, visitors, media attention and sales of merchandise. As a result, federal regulators allowed the payments to continue.
A former Fish and Wildlife official is quoted by The New York Times as saying the Chinese felt it should not be of any concern to the United States how they were using the money.
The Times investigation found the pandas are often used for breeding more so than conservation efforts. In tracking financial reports, the probe found that $86 million has gone from American zoos to a pair of organizations run by the Chinese government. The investigation discovered that some of the money was used to help transform a panda breeding center in Western China into an attraction.
The Times examined recent contracts and found no mention of checking to see how China is spending the millions of dollars by the National Zoo or the San Diego Zoo. American regulators who have been to China said they did see some evidence of conservation there. However, they also said the pandas habitat is shrinking, and the animals have less territory to roam.