Why a zoo in Finland is returning two giant pandas to China

A zoo successful Finland is returning a brace of elephantine pandas to China arsenic fiscal hardship and rising ostentation are making it hard to support them.

Lumi and Pyry are leaving Finland astir 8 years up of schedule. The pandas arrived successful the Scandinavian state successful January 2018 nether an agreement with the Chinese government pursuing a authorities sojourn by president Xi Jinping and were expected to stay for 15 years.

Pyry is simply a antheral panda primitively named Hua Bao and Lumi is simply a pistillate called Jin Bao Bao backmost successful China.

The Ahtari Zoo hoped the pandas would pull much visitors to its cardinal determination but that has not happened. As a result, the zoo has accumulated important indebtedness since the Covid pandemic.

Risto Sivonen, seat of the backstage institution operating the zoo, said they invested implicit €8m (£6m) successful the installation to location the animals and tally an yearly measure of €1.5m (£1.2m) for their upkeep, including a preservation interest paid to China.

The zoo has faced expanding fiscal hardship successful caller years, successful ample portion due to the fact that of the pandemic, reduced tourer footfall, and soaring ostentation and rising involvement rates owed to the warfare successful Ukraine.

The zoo asked for a €5m (£4.2m) assistance from the Finnish authorities but the exertion was declined.

The iconic pandas are autochthonal to China and are classified arsenic vulnerable.

China has utilized pandas arsenic portion of its efforts to amended relations with overseas countries, a signifier known arsenic "panda diplomacy”. The animals are sent overseas to service arsenic a awesome of relationship betwixt China and those countries.