China's giant panda habitat was included on the World Heritage List at the July 2006 session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania. After deliberation, the 30th session of the WHC unanimously agreed to include the giant panda habitat, making it the 35th Chinese site on the list.

More than 30 percent of the world's highly endangered pandas live in the Great Panda habitat in southwest Sichuan Province, said UNESCO in highlighting its reason for including the area.

" We greatly thank the Chinese Government for submitting such a good application to the WHC to enrich the World Heritage List," said the WHC.
" We greatly thank the Chinese Government for its tremendous effort to protect such a precious site of biodiversity."

Wang Fengwu, a member of the Chinese delegation at the meeting, told Chinese reporters that the decision would prompt effective protection of rare and endangered animals and plant species.

The giant panda habitat of Sichuan Province covers a 9,510-square-kilometre area including the world-renowned Wolong Nature Reserve,

China has spent 20 years trying to get the area included on the World Heritage List, said Wang, who is also deputy director-general of the Department of Urban Development at the Ministry of Construction.

“ This is a great success for China , the World Heritage Convention and for conservation in general,” said David Sheppard , Head of the IUCN delegation in Vilnius . “It shows how the World Heritage Convention can encourage governments to ensure the greatest level of protection for globally important sites.”

To date, China has 31 world heritage sites, including the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace.