Finnish Zoo Sends Pandas Back to China Because Breeding Them Is Too Expensive: NPR

HELSINKI – A zoo in Finland has agreed with Chinese authorities to return two giant pandas to China more than eight years ahead of schedule because the costs of maintaining them have become too high for the facility amid declining visitor numbers.

The private Ahtari Zoo in central Finland, about 330 kilometers (205 miles) north of Helsinki, said on Wednesday on its Facebook page that female panda Lomi, which means “snow” in Finnish, and male panda Peri, which means “snowfall,” will make an “early return” to China later this year.

The panda pair were a gift from China to mark the Scandinavian country’s 100th anniversary of independence in 2017, and were supposed to remain on loan until 2033.

But since then, the zoo has faced a number of challenges, including a decline in visitors due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as rising inflation and interest rates, the facility said in a statement.

The panda deal between Helsinki and Beijing, a 15-year loan agreement, was finalized in April 2017 when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Finland for talks with then Finnish President Sauli Niinistö. The pandas arrived in Finland in January 2018.

Ahtari Zoo, which specializes in typical northern European animals such as bears, lynxes and wolves, has built a special panda annex at a cost of about 8 million euros ($9 million) in the hope of attracting more tourists to the remote nature reserve.

The maintenance of Lomi and Peri, including the maintenance fees paid by China, costs the zoo about 1.5 million euros a year. The bamboo that the giant pandas eat was flown in from the Netherlands.

The Chinese embassy in Helsinki told Finnish media that Beijing had tried to help Ahtari solve its financial difficulties by, among other things, urging Chinese companies operating in Finland to make donations to the zoo and support its debt arrangements.

However, the drop in visitor numbers coupled with the drastic changes in the economic environment have proven too much for the small Finnish zoo. The panda pair will enter a month-long quarantine in late October before being shipped to China.

Finland, with a population of 5.6 million, was among the first Western countries to establish political relations with China, in 1950. China has given giant pandas to the countries as a sign of goodwill and close political relations, and Finland was the first Nordic country to receive them.