Int'l base set up to protect rare species

Keepers feed pandas with an apple hanging from a long pole at Chengdu Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Southwest China's Sichuan province, Oct 23, 2011. [CFP]

China's Sichuan Province, home of the giant panda, established an international cooperation base on Monday to better protect the "living fossil" and other rare species.

The Science and Technology Cooperation Base, approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology, was set up in a giant panda research and breeding base in suburban Chengdu, capital city of the southwestern province, officials with the breeding base said.

Through scientific and technological cooperation among countries across the world, the base is expected to work out a protection mode that could both support the sustainable development of the human race and protect rare animals, the statement said.

The Chengdu panda base, established in 1987, covers an area of 106 hectares and is home to 98 captive-bred giant pandas.