The Chinese giant salamander Andrias davidianus is endemic to China and is Critically Endangered, largely because of overexploitation for food. This species is an expensive delicacy in China, and a rapidly growing industry to farm the species has developed throughout much of the country, centred on the Qinling Mountain region of Shaanxi Province. During a 2010 workshop on Chinese giant salamander conservation, which involved a range of stakeholders from across China, it became clear that the conservation community knew little about the salamander farming industry and whether it posed actual or potential threats or opportunities for conservation of the Chinese giant salamander. We therefore conducted a series of investigations to understand the industry better. Our results indicate that although farming of Chinese giant salamanders has the potential to be a positive development for conservation by supplying market demand with farmed animals, it is currently more likely to threaten than support conservation of the species, with continued overexploitation and the potential added impacts of infectious disease and genetic pollution arising from farming practices such as movement of animals across the country and the release of untreated farm wastewater and farmed salamanders to the wild.

The Chinese giant salamander Andrias davidianus is the largest living amphibian. Most wild populations are threatened and some are already extinct. The Chinese government has declared the species a Class II Protected Species, and it is listed as Critically Endangered in the Chinese Red Book of Amphibians and Reptiles and as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List. Populations of the species have declined sharply in both range and number since the 1950s because of habitat loss and fragmentation, and hunting for the commercial luxury food trade. Remaining populations appear to be distributed in 12 areas across 17 provinces in the mountainous areas of the middle Yangtze, Yellow and Pearl Rivers. Since the 1980s, 14 nature reserves, with a total area of more than 355,000 ha, have been established for the conservation of the Chinese giant salamander. We carried out habitat and questionnaire surveys for the species in 13 locations, and based on the results and on the little amount of published information, most of it in Chinese, we assess the current status of the species and make recommendations for its conservation management. Conservation of the Chinese giant salamander should be given a high priority and considered an important part of wetland management.