What is a Panda Ambassador?

Back in January, UNDP and China’s Chengdu Panda Base announced two baby panda cubs as the first ever Animal Ambassadors for the Sustainable Development Goals.

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The cubs, both male, were born a few months earlier during the week world leaders convened at the United Nations in New York to adopt the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), known as the ‘Global Goals', part of a bold new agenda that aims at eradicating poverty and tackling some of the most pressing challenges facing the world today.

We’re so excited to be working with our adorable Animal Ambassadors to help spread the word about the goals! And we’re so excited to be working with more than 20 zoos around the world, including Beijing Zoo, Guangzhou Zoo, Shanghai Zoo, Shenzhen Safari Park, Chongqing Zoo, Seac Pai Van Park, Ocean Park, Adelaide Zoo, Toronto Zoo, ZooParc de Beauval, Adventure World, Ueno Zoo, Edinburgh Zoo, Zoo Atlanta, Pairi Daiza, Copenhagen Zoo, Ouwehands Zoo, Everland Resort Zootopia, River Safari, Kruger National Park and Chiang Mai Zoo.

Pandas symbolize the plight of the world’s diminishing wildlife in the face of climate change and the loss of natural habitats. But that plight doesn’t affect just wildlife like the pandas – both biodiversity and healthy ecosystems are essential for improving and sustaining human wellbeing.

In fact, addressing the loss of biodiversity is one of the Sustainable Development Goals.

We hope the pandas will help inspire people to engage with the goals, and raise awareness of our efforts to promote sustainable development around the world.

Demographic changes, overconsumption, and the use of technologies that damage the environment, combined with climate change, are pushing our planet to its limits, and biodiversity losses we are now witnessing are diminishing the potential for sustainable development. UNDP is responding to this challenge by supporting countries to manage their ecosystems and biodiversity and our biodiversity and ecosystems portfolio is the largest in the UN system, covering 132 countries and over 500 projects with US$ 1.5 billion in funding.

Find out more about UNDP’s work

Participating zoos

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