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WWF Experts
Karen Baragona
Director, China Markets and Policy
Education
- MS - Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University
- BA - History, The College of William and Mary
Areas of Expertise
- Conservation and sustainable development in China
- China's role in reining in the global ecological footprint
- Giant panda conservation
- Perils and pitfalls of reintroducing endangered species to the wild
"Our success in the Yangtze stems from strong partnerships and a shared goal - protecting this natural treasure."
About Karen Baragona:
Karen has 18 years of experience with China, 11 of those with WWF. As head of the Yangtze program, she works to restore wetlands and forests, protect giant pandas and empower local communities to develop economically without damaging the forest ecosystems that wildlife and people depend on. Karen has led WWF's giant panda conservation program since 1998 and in 2004, helped coordinate the most comprehensive survey of the giant panda population ever undertaken, which revealed 50 percent more pandas in the wild than previously recorded. "We found pandas living in areas we didn't know had any," she recalls.
Karen is particularly proud of the progress made with the Chinese government in terms of sustainable development and creating new forest reserves. "China was an impoverished country when we were first invited to work on panda research more than 25 years ago." In just the last decade, China's economy has boomed. "The government has more than doubled the number of giant panda reserves, from 30 to over 60, with almost two-thirds of the panda population and nearly half its habitat now under protection."
