MORE than 800 Shenzhen Safari Park employees are petitioning against a plan to use a piece of the park's land to build a theme park.

The blueprint of Futuroscope, a theme park to be jointly built by the Shenzhen Baoneng Investment Group and the French Futuroscope Group, has included more than 120,000 square meters of land belonging to the safari park, according to a source with the safari park.

Shenzhen Safari Park is a State-owned company, and the land on which it is situated belongs to the State. It's not clear whether the government will agree to the blueprint, but insiders say the possibility is low. The municipal urban planning bureau, which is responsible for approving land use, said no decision had been made on the project.

Shenzhen's Baoneng group and the French Futuroscope Group announced their 1.6 billion-yuan (US$200 million) project May 18. At the end of May, the municipal government organized a meeting for the project, and it was then that the safari park administration learned that the park's land might be taken away.

The safari park land in the Futuroscope plan includes two parking lots, a sea lion performance hall, a performance square and a crocodile pool. "If the land is taken away, the safari park will become even more crowded," says the petition published on the safari park's Web site http://www.szzoo.net.

Calls to the Shenzhen Baoneng Investment Group went unanswered.

The letter, signed by 800 park employees, will be sent to the municipal government, according to a source with the park.

Shenzhen Safari Park, which was built 13 years ago, is home to more than 10,000 wild animals.

Editor: Helen Deng