The Winding Road to Wanglang

This study moves to the local level to offer a close investigation of just how the national nature protection policy, examined in Chapter 2, was implemented on the ground. The Wanglang Reserve, in Pingwu county of northern Sichuan province, became the first space demarcated as a panda reserve and thus the first experiment in engaging local people in the national cause of panda protection. Local bureaucrats, villagers of the Baima ethnic group, and scientists grappled over their individual interpretations of the panda’s elevated status as a protected species. By studying the actions of these groups, I demonstrate the interactive nature of their efforts to define China’s natural environment and the panda’s role in society during the 1960s.