Mitigating fragmentation caused by roads with underground tunnels can be an effective way of restoring connectivity for wildlife; monitoring of the restoration is important to document outcomes.

National Road 108 was built in the 1970s through the Qinling Landscape in central China and over time brought heavy traffic (Figure 1). The road divided an intact forest and caused the fragmentation of previously connected panda habitat. It also gave the local human population access to the forest. Consequent use of wild resources further degraded the habitat. The resident panda population was gradually split in two: the Xinglongling subgroup to the west and the Tianhuashan subgroup to the east.

In 2000, a tunnel was built by the government to accommodate a new road. The abandonment of the old road and the re-establishment of habitat on land on top of the tunnel provided the opportunity to reconnect the separated panda groups. In 2003, Shaanxi Guanyinshan Nature Reserve was legally established, and in 2005 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) together with the reserve launched the G108 Qinling vehicle tunnel corridor restoration project (Figure 2). The main strategic activities in the ecological corridor include:

• Baseline survey and mapping to understand the population status of the panda subgroups, the physical distance between them, the socio-economic condition of local communities, the management capacity of the reserve and the forest tenure in the area.
• Habitat restoration through bamboo plantings in gap plots to improve habitat quality, providing connected habitat and thereby a path for panda movement.
• Local community engagement, including providing support to local households, demonstrations of sustainable forest management and education programs about the significance of habitat conservation.
• Traffic management to enforce the ban on humans and vehicles using the abandoned road.
• Capacity enhancement to improve the management effectiveness of Guanyinshan Nature Reserve.
• Wildlife monitoring.

Figure 1. Panda subpopulations in the Qinling landscape. National Road 108 is running from north to south. The black rectangle indicates the location of the ecological corridor. © WWF China

Giant pandas have been documented in the ecological corridor, which includes land on top of the road tunnel and surrounding lands connecting the core areas. The ecological distance between the subgroups has been reduced and is now shorter than the daily activity range of a panda. The number of mammal and pheasant species found in the corridor area has increased from zero to 15.