Positive responses from giant pandas to the Natural Forest Conservation Programme based on slope utilisation

•More larger-sized trees stand in the original forest than in secondary forests.•Giant pandas utilise gentle areas more in secondary forest from the 3rd survey to 4th survey.•There was a threshold effect on giant pandas’ slope utilisation for timber harvesting.•Giant pandas utilise gentle areas more in secondary forest from the 3rd survey to 4th survey. Suitable habitats contain essential resources for individuals completing their life cycles. However, timber harvesting can alter habitat structure and affect animal habitat selection patterns. Several recent conservation initiatives conducive to the restoration of giant panda habitat, such as the National Forest Conservation Program (NFCP) in China, have been implemented. Relatively few studies have concentrated on the effects of the NFCP on habitat selection by giant pandas. Extensive datasets, collected from the 3rd (1999–2002) and 4th (2011–2014) national giant panda surveys in Sichuan province, China, were analysed to reveal responses in habitat selection by giant pandas with implementation of the NFCP. The results confirm that more, larger trees stood in original forests than in secondary forests. With the cessation of timber harvesting and implementation of NFCP, gentle sloping areas of secondary growth forests in mountainous ranges were again occupied by giant pandas during the 4th survey. Under the impacts of timber harvesting, there was a threshold effect of slope utilisation by the giant pandas. Based on comparisons of the variation in habitat selection from the 3rd to the 4th survey between the old-growth and secondary forests, more and more pandas have been migrating into the gentle slope areas of secondary growth forests during restoration of the pandas’ habitat. Whether the balance in migration patterns is or is not reached can be used as an evaluation criterion of restoring panda habitat to original forest. These results suggested a positive response by giant pandas to the NFCP based on slope utilisation in recent decades. However, more work also needs to focus on panda habitat restoration in secondary growth forest in future, such as strengthening habitat management policies, prolonging the NFCP, increasing investment in panda habitat restoration technology, and so forth.