(Reuters) – Finland will return two giant pandas to China in November, more than eight years early, because the zoo where they live can no longer afford to keep them, the chairman of the zoo’s board told Reuters on Tuesday.
The pandas, named Lumi and Pyry, were brought to Finland in January 2018, months after Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited the Nordic country and signed a joint agreement on animal protection.
Since its founding in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has sent pandas to foreign zoos to strengthen trade ties, cement foreign relations and boost its international image.
The deal with Finland was for a 15-year stay, but instead the pandas will soon be quarantined for a month before being sent back to China, according to Ahtari Zoo, the pandas’ current home.
The zoo, a private company, had invested more than 8 million euros (about $9 million) in the facilities where the animals live and faced annual costs of 1.5 million euros for their maintenance, including a conservation fee paid to China, said Ahtari President Risto Sivonen.
The zoo had hoped the pandas would draw visitors to its central Finland location, but said last year that it had instead racked up mounting debts as the pandemic curbed travel, and that it was considering bringing them back.
Rising inflation has added to costs, the zoo said, and the Finnish government has rejected requests for state funding in 2023.
In total, negotiations to return the animals had lasted three years, Sivonen said.
“Now we have reached a point where the Chinese say it can be done,” Sivonen said.
The return of the pandas was a business decision by the zoo in which the Finnish government was not involved and should not affect relations between the two countries, a spokesman for the Finnish Foreign Ministry said.
Despite China’s efforts to help the zoo, the two countries eventually came to a joint conclusion after friendly consultations to return the pandas, the Chinese embassy in Helsinki said in a statement to Reuters.
