Pandas too expensive for Finland, local zoo to send them to China
Ähtäri Zoo in Finland has made the difficult decision to send its pandas back to China, saying the cost of keeping the animals was too much to bear.
Eight years after bringing two pandas to Ähtäri Zoo, the Finns have decided to send both animals back to their homeland. Lumi and Pyry were brought to central Finland in January 2018, shortly after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited and signed an agreement on the protection of the species.
Pandas from Finland are returning to China. They turned out to be too expensive.
The agreement was signed for 15 years. Instead, the pandas will be returned to China later this year. They will have to wait another month in quarantine before being sent back. As reported by Reuters, the zoo, owned by a private company, invested 8 million euros in creating conditions for Lumi and Pyra. Annual maintenance of the animals was to cost another 1.5 million euros.
The Finnish zoo had hoped that bringing in exotic pandas would help attract visitors to the country’s central region. Instead, the move has resulted in mounting debts, especially after a tourism slump related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rising inflation and costs have led the zoo to apply for state funding in 2023. Negotiations have already been underway to return the animals.
– Now we have reached the point where the Chinese have said we can do it, Ähtäri Zoo director Risto Sivonen told Reuters.
Sending pandas back to China is not a political gesture
The People’s Republic of China has been sending pandas to zoos in other countries since 1949 to strengthen trade, cement relations and improve its image in the world. A spokesman for the Finnish Foreign Ministry stressed that the decision to return the animals was purely business and did not concern relations between Beijing and Helsinki.
The Chinese Embassy in Helsinki issued its own statement to Reuters. Diplomats stressed that China’s efforts to support the Ähtäri zoo had failed. Both countries had agreed, “after friendly consultations,” that the pandas should be returned home.
