A zoo in Finland is sending two giant pandas back to China, blaming inflation on increased maintenance prices, having spent more than €8 million on the animals´ facility.
Finnish zoo sends pandas back to China
The Ähtäri Zoo in Finland reported that they can no longer provide for the two giant pandas, Lumi and Pyry, brought from China in 2018, having spent more than €8 million on their facility. The zoo blamed the rising inflation, completely unprecedented at the time the pandas were moved to Ähtäri six years ago.
In January 2018, Lumi and Pyry found a new home in Finland, months after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the country and signed a joint agreement on animal preservation. Set on a stay of 15 years, the Finnish zoo now made a statement of returning the pandas to China due to climbing maintenance prices, facing annual costs of €1,5 million.
Ähtäri Zoo curator Mahrko Haekosky told the Press that the pricey upkeep of the pandas is “much more than all the other species combined.” Last year, the Zoo pleaded for state funding but was rejected; “They thought the pandas would bring more visitors, and that it was a good investment – turns out it wasn´t so,” reported Haekosky. Lumi and Pyry will now enter a month-long quarantine before returning to China in November.
The negotiations about returning the pandas to China began in 2021 and as the chair of Ähtäri Zoo, Risto Sivonen stated; “Now we reached a point where the Chinese said it could be done.”
A spokesperson for Finland´s foreign ministry emphasised that the bringing of the pandas back home was a mere “business decision,” made by the private zoo company, with no influence from Finland´s government, and should in no way impact the relations between the two countries.
China´s panda diplomacy
The People´s Republic of China has been sending giant pandas across the world since its founding in 1949. A symbol of international peace and collaboration, the animals have often reflected the Chinese government´s outlook on foreign affairs. Considering Finland is no longer able to maintain the costs of “panda diplomacy,” it is worth noting that the relations between the two countries have been peaceful for several years.
Ping Ping and Qi Qi were the first of China´s “panda ambassadors,” sent as gifts to the Soviet Union by Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong in 1957. The arrival of the animals marked the 40th anniversary of Russia´s October Revolution, strengthening the supportive relationship of the two power nations.
In 1972, another major diplomatic milestone was reached through “panda diplomacy,” two months after former US President Richard Nixon visited China in an attempt to transform and improve US-China relations, an 18-month-old par of pandas arrived in the US. Hsing-Hsing and Ling Ling stayed in the USA until their deaths.
For years, China continued sending their generous gifts, until, in 1984, they became “loans,” paid by zoos as a gesture of animal conservation contributions in China. Today, these “loans” are closely associated with lucrative trade agreements; in 2009, Australia was loaned pandas, followed by Canada and France in 2012. As suggested by Oxford University professors, these coincided with uranium deals made with these countries at the time.
Likewise, the two pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang were recently sent to Edinburgh Zoo during negotiations over deals of salmon supply, Land Rover vehicles, and energy technology from Scotland to China.
Greg Vicino, vice president of wildlife care at the San Diego Zoo, which previously received China´s “diplomacy pandas,” shared that “having worked in this field for over 20 years now,” he “immediately found out it is about forming relationships.”
He explained that for international affairs, pandas have become imperative symbols of support; “This is really about one-on-one contact between true conservationists from different countries.”
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