XI'AN: Three years after Shaanxi established environmental protection and ecological tourism zones for its rare giant pandas, both the pandas and local farmers seem happy.

Studies in the Northwest China province show the panda population is up, and so is the farmers' income.

Giant pandas, a rare wild animal only found in China, mainly live in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. But some also inhabit Shaanxi.

Pandas living in Shaanxi are a special kind with brown eye sockets and brown fur on its four limbs.

"These pandas are a new subspecies, which is more precious but in imminent danger of extinction," said Wang Wanyun, animal protection section director of the provincial forestry bureau.

Therefore, Shaanxi established natural protection zones in such locations as Foping, Ningshaan and Zhouzhi, all in the Qinling Mountains, Wang said.

"In recent years, we've tried to enhance ecological features in the mountainous areas and address several projects including forest protection, natural protection zone construction and wild animal protection to greatly help improve the quality of the wild animals' habitat," the director said.

With these efforts, the panda population has increased, and their habitat has expanded, Wang said.

China's third census, conducted from 1999 to 2003, showed there are 273 adult pandas in Shaanxi, distributed mainly in eight Shaanxi counties. In the first census in 1976-77, the count was 237, and in the second census in 1987-88, it was 243. The pandas had been in only six counties.

"It is estimated that the total population, if you calculate babies and young pandas, reached 340, and the Shaanxi density is the highest, with 7.8 pandas per 100 square kilometres of habitat," said Yong Yange, a panda expert .

With the increasing population of the animals and the continuing expansion of their habitat, conflict between panda protection and local economic development was inevitable. So, ecological tourism was planned into the pandas' protection zones, aiming to help improve the lives of local farmers, as well, Wang said.

It started from September 2002, when Shaanxi established the first ecological tourism zone in the Taibai Mountains. The result is that local farmers have benefited from the plan, according to Lei Tao, an employee of the World Wildlife Federation, which supports it.