８年超前倒しで中国にパンダ返還、維持費で財務逼迫　フィンランド

【ヘルシンキＡＦＰ＝時事】フィンランドは中国から貸与されているジャイアントパンダ２頭を予定より８年以上早く、年内に返還する。パンダを飼育している動物園の財務問題が原因だという。（写真はジャイアントパンダ〈資料写真〉）
　２０１８年にフィンランドへやって来たパンダのジン・バオバオ（フィンランド語でルミ、「雪」の意）とフア・バオ（フィンランド語でピュリ、「吹雪」の意）の貸与期間は１５年の予定だった。しかし、アフタリ動物園の園長は２５日、ＡＦＰに対し「われわれの経済状況では、これ以上パンダを飼育することはできない」と述べた。
　「パンダ舎の費用は８５０万ユーロ（約１３億７０００万円）、パンダの維持費は年間１５０万ユーロ（約２億４０００万円）」だという。
　新型コロナウイルスのパンデミック（世界的な大流行）による来園者数の減少や、ロシアによるウクライナ侵攻後の金利上昇とインフレが、動物園の財務に打撃となったという。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/09/26-17:17）

Finland will return two giant pandas on loan from China more than eight years ahead of schedule because of financial problems at the zoo where they are housed, its chair told AFP on Wednesday.
The giant pandas named Jin Bao Bao (Lumi, or Snow in Finnish) and Hua Bao (Pyry, or Blizzard), which arrived in Finland in 2018, will be returned by the end of this year.
The pandas were to be returned after 15 years but our economical situation does not allow us to keep the pandas anymore Ahtari Zoo's board chairman Risto Sivonen said.
An agreement to loan the animals to Finland was sealed during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2017.
At that time we were very sure this was the right decision, Sivonen said.
But declining visitor numbers because of the Covid pandemic, and higher interest rates and inflation following Russia's war in Ukraine, have impacted the zoo's finances.
The cost for the panda house was 8.5 million euros ($9.5 million) and the annual cost for keeping the pandas is 1.5 million euros, he said.
The agreement to return the pair was reached with the zoo's partners in China on September 20.
By the end of October, the pandas, which are in very good shape according to Sivonen, will be placed in quarantine for a minimum of one month in Finland before making the trip home.
The black and white mammals are immensely popular around the world, and China loans them out as part of a panda diplomacy programme to foster foreign ties.
There are an estimated 1,860 giant pandas remaining in the wild, mainly in bamboo forests in the mountains of China, according to environmental group WWF.
About 600 are in captivity in panda centres, zoos and wildlife parks around the world.