REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia will receive two seven-year-old giant pandas from China, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the governments of the two countries.

The MoU was also signed by PT. Taman Safari Indonesia and the China Wildlife Conservation Association in Guiyang, China, on August 1.

"It is being carried out as one of the measures to strengthen the diplomatic relationship between Indonesia and China, and so both governments have decided to develop a conservation cooperation by bringing a couple of Chinese giant pandas to Indonesia," said Director of Nature Conservation and Information Management from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Listya Kusumawardhani in Jakarta, Friday.

One of the pandas is a male panda, named Cai Tao, born on August 4, 2010, and weighing 128 kilograms, while the other is a female panda, named Hu Chun, weighing 113 kilograms, and born on September 2010. Both the pandas are healthy.

Kusumawardhani further stated that the conservation cooperation was initiated in 2010 during the commemoration of the diplomatic relations between Indonesia and China that had entered its 60th year, which was then followed up by the relevant government officials, resulting in bilateral cooperation in the conservation of giant pandas.

"The pandas will be transported by an airplane of Garuda Indonesia from the airport in Chengdu, China, and arrive in Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta Airport on September 28. They will then be quarantined in PT. Taman Safari Indonesia's conservation center in Cisarua, Bogor, West Java," she explained.

Meanwhile, Cargo Director of Garuda Indonesia Sigit Muhartono stated that the airline would carry out an exceptional re-routing from Chengdu to Jakarta via Denpasar.

"This is being done, so that the journey takes less time, that is only six hours and 50 minutes. It is estimated that the airplane carrying the two pandas will reach Jakarta on September 28 at 8:50 am," he stated.

Conservation mechanism

In Indonesia, the conservation of giant pandas involves the breeding loan mechanism, which is regulated under Ministerial Law No. 83 of 2014.

Breeding loan is aimed at conservation and non-commercial breeding for genetics improvement or fresh blood addition for animals that are included in the list of collections for foreign conservation.

At the moment, there are only 16 countries that have received the breeding loan of the Chinese giant panda, and Indonesia will become the 17th.

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