芬兰一家私人动物园——位于赫尔辛基以北约 205 英里的中心地带、距离首都约有 330 公里（205 英里）的艾塔瑞动物园，在其 Facebook 页面上宣布，鉴于新冠疫情和俄罗斯与乌克兰之间的冲突导致游客量下降以及通货膨胀和利率上升等因素的影响，原本应于 2033 年才归还中国的两只大熊猫——名为“雪”的雌性熊猫 Lumi 和“暴风雪”的雄性熊猫 Pyry，将比原计划提前返回中国。
这两只熊猫是作为纪念芬兰独立百年庆典的友好礼物由中国赠送。按照当时的协议规定，它们借给芬兰的时间原本将持续到 2033 年。然而，艾塔瑞动物园近期面临了包括游客数量下滑在内的一系列挑战，在这一背景下，这些成本成为了维持动物照料难以承受之重。
15年期限的贷款合同由赫尔辛基与北京签订于 2017 年，当时中国国家主席习近平访问芬兰并与前总统 Sauli Niinistö讨论了相关事宜。两只熊猫在 2018 年 1 月被运往芬兰。艾塔瑞动物园为了吸引游客，专门建造了一座耗资约9百万欧元（约合1.5亿美元）的熊猫馆，希望以此推动其位于偏远自然保护区内的业务发展。
熊猫Lumi 和 Pyry 的护理费用每年约为 150万欧元，还包括向中国支付的一笔用于维持动物生存的费用。作为食草动物，这些大熊猫食用的竹子都是从荷兰空运而来。
中国驻赫尔辛基大使馆在芬媒上回应称，中国政府曾尝试通过鼓励在中国芬兰运营的企业对动物园进行捐款，并支持其债务安排的方式帮助解决艾塔瑞动物园的财务困难问题。然而，游客数量下降和经济环境的剧烈变化最终使这家小型芬兰动物园难以承担这两只大熊猫的维护成本。
该对熊猫预计将于 10 月底进入为期一个月的隔离期后被运送至中国。
新闻来源：www.abcnews.go.com
原文地址：A zoo in Finland is returning giant pandas to China because they’re too expensive to keep
新闻日期：2024-09-25
原文摘要：
A zoo in Finland has agreed with Chinese authorities to return two loaned giant pandas to China more than eight years ahead of schedule because they have become too expensive for the facility to maintain amid declining visitors. The private Ähtäri Zoo in central Finland some 330 kilometers (205 miles) north of Helsinki said Wednesday on its Facebook page that the female panda Lumi, Finnish for “snow,” and the male panda Pyry, meaning “snowfall,” will return “prematurely” to China later this year. The panda pair was China’s gift to mark the Nordic nation’s 100 years of independence in 2017, and they were supposed to be on loan until 2033. But since then the zoo has experienced a number of challenges, including a decline in visitors due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as an increase in inflation and interest rates, the facility said in a statement. The panda deal between Helsinki and Beijing, a 15-year loan agreement, had been finalized in April 2017 when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Finland for talks with Finland's then-President Sauli Niinistö. The pandas arrived in Finland in January 2018. The Ähtäri Zoo, which specializes in typical northern European animals such as bears, lynxes and wolverines, built a special panda annex at a cost of some 8 million euros ($9 million) in hopes of luring more tourists to the remote nature reserve. The upkeep of Lumi and Pyry, including a preservation fee to China, cost the zoo some 1.5 million euros annually. The bamboo that giant pandas eat was flown in from the Netherlands. The Chinese Embassy in Helsinki noted to Finnish media that Beijing had tried to help Ähtäri to solve its financial difficulties by, among things, urging Chinese companies operating in Finland to make donations to the zoo and supporting its debt arrangements. However, declining visitor numbers combined with drastic changes in the economic environment proved too high a burden for the smallish Finnish zoo. The panda pair will enter into a monthlong quarantine in late October before being shipped to China. Finland, a country of 5.6 million, was among the first Western nations to establish political ties with China, doing so in 1950. China has presented giant pandas to countries as a sign of goodwill and closer political ties, and Finland was the first Nordic nation to receive them.
