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LONG-TERM COMMITMENT TO CRANES AND CONSERVATION

by Jim Harris and Rich Beilfuss

This past year has been busy for crane conservationists. We celebrated the tenth anniversary of Muraviovka Park--the first privately-managed protected area in Russia--a 40,000 acre wetland reserve that the International Crane Foundation (ICF) helped to establish and continues to support. After nine years of intensive effort by ICF staff, Mozambique declared the Zambezi Delta, a wetland vital for cranes and countless other species, its first Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention. We and our Vietnamese colleagues continued our efforts, begun in 1988, to protect and manage Tram Chim National Park, one of few remaining wetlands in the vast Mekong Delta that has become the breadbasket of Asia. Our work in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, initiated in 1974, has positioned us to engage in top-level conservation planning for the future of this unusual strip of wildland that sustains one of the most important crane sites in Asia and separates two densely developed countries on the brink of reunification. Near our headquarters in rural Wisconsin, USA, ICF's studies of Sandhill Cranes in a typical midwestern landscape of farms and wetlands are now in their 15th year. Each of these efforts may be considered "long-term" in our quick-fix world of problem-solving, yet all are extraordinarily brief when measured against the evolutionary history of cranes.

ICF works worldwide to conserve the 15 species of cranes and the wetland, grassland, and other ecosystems on which the cranes depend. We are dedicated to providing experience, knowledge, and inspiration to involve people in resolving threats to these ecosystems.

Such work is not about safeguarding the cranes for an extra decade or two. Those of us involved with ICF have long-term hopes for, and commitments to, lasting conservation solutions. Our focused mission has given us the remarkable privilege to know these birds, the places where they live, and the people they live with. Along the lower Zambezi River in Mozambique, for example, we found that upstream dams have dramatically changed the ecology of these once-vast wetlands. Wattled Cranes, threatened throughout their range, now nest only on the western fringe of the delta, where runoff from the adjacent uplands supports dwindling patches of spike rush (Eleocharis acutangula), the main food for the cranes and their chicks. Further investigation revealed that other wildlife, as well as local fishers and farmers, have suffered similarly from altered flooding patterns. Conservation solutions here thus have evolved from a localized effort to protect Wattled Cranes to a basin-wide program to implement sustainable water management practices for the people and wildlife of the lower Zambezi River.

While each crane site, its specific threats, and the aspirations and needs of local people are unique, many of the challenges and solutions for crane conservation are common throughout the five continents where cranes occur. ICF works to develop local understanding and effective approaches that can be disseminated widely throughout the extended network of crane conservationists, which covers more than 80 nations. Indeed, the cranes have over the last three decades inspired many hundreds of people within a global conservation community. Working groups for cranes now thrive in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The high value that many cultures place on cranes energizes programs that link the conservation of these graceful birds to the complicated ecological and human issues integral to their well-being. ICF recognizes that to safeguard cranes in the long term, conservation action must occur at multiple, interdependent levels: mitigating threats facing individual cranes, bolstering wild populations through captive breeding and reintroduction, protecting and restoring the ecosystems where cranes live, promoting alternative land use practices in the watersheds and basins that sustain important crane sites, securing flyways through coordinated regional partnerships, and attending to the global, or ultimate, threats to crane survival such as human population growth or economic disparities.

The future of the Wattled Cranes, for example, depends on action at all these levels. In South Africa, breeding pairs have human guardians caring for them, and birds raised in captivity have been released to augment the tiny population. Programs to promote the sustainable management of threatened Wattled Crane sites are underway in some of the great floodplains of Africa--the Kafue Flats, Okavango Delta, and Bangweulu Swamps--as well as the isolated highland wetlands of South Africa, Malawi, and Ethiopia. We work with the communities living in and around these and other wetlands to adopt alternative land use practices that are compatible with wetlands and their inhabitants. The African Wattled Crane Program includes representatives from all 11 range countries where Wattled Cranes occur, enabling coordination of research and conservation strategies throughout the region.

ICF is a small organization, headquartered far from the places where most cranes occur. Thus, we must partner with diverse individuals and organizations if we are to secure a future for cranes. ICF focuses its efforts on long-term projects that demonstrate effective approaches at different scales, catalyze action through sharing information, and use the charisma of cranes to motivate others to act. Because cranes have such universal appeal, we seek approaches that bring together people who normally do not collaborate: poor farmers and wetland managers in southwestern China, for example, or conservationists from North and South Korea.

We have found that long-term solutions depend on supporting sustained effort, on learning through collaborations and multiple iterations, and on nurturing the leadership of people in the places where cranes live. Success relies in part on developing lasting relationships among the individuals and organizations with which we work. As we consider new projects and ways to assist others in addressing threats to populations or critical ecosystems, we seek out individuals with passion and technical skills as well as an awareness of and sensitivity to social needs. These individuals become local champions, teaching us about the places where we work and gradually, as roles evolve, taking on the major work.

As all conservation biologists know, the immense task of understanding and conserving the world's biodiversity can be daunting. Crane conservation likewise is a remarkably complex undertaking. We have found in our work that the 15 species of cranes offer an elegance and simplicity to which anyone can relate, and that cranes thus provide a tangible expression of (and approach to) long term and global-scale conservation. Through the interconnections among cranes, landscapes, and people, these majestic birds allow conservation practitioners of all backgrounds to address issues of great breadth and vital concern, while yielding great opportunities for direct and meaningful results in the special places where cranes occur.

Please visit our Web site, www.savingcranes.org, to learn more about ICF's long-term commitment to cranes and conservation around the globe.

The International Crane Foundation received a 2004 Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Conservation Biology for their worldwide work, including research and public education, to conserve cranes and the wetlands and grasslands on which they depend. Action by the International Crane Foundation has led to protection of millions of hectares that benefit thousands of species and helped bring cooperation to regions of prolonged human conflict.

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