AUTHORS: Claire Mirande and Li Fengshan, International Crane Foundation, Baraboo, Wisconsin
ABSTRACT: The Siberian Crane is listed as Critically Endangered under the IUCN Red List. The total population size is estimated at 3,600-4,000. Although currently stable to slightly increasing, the cranes must migrate the length of eastern China, one of the most heavily populated and rapidly developing areas on earth. Securing species’ survival will require addressing threats at all stages of the annual cycle. In 2015 the Disney Conservation Fund launched an ambitious Reverse the Decline program aimed to make a difference for ten endangered taxa over ten years. The Siberian Crane was selected and ICF was invited to coordinate the effort in cooperation with Chinese and Russian colleagues. Our vision is to ensure high quality and resilient ecosystems are managed to provide multiple habitats in each stage of the annual migration cycle supporting a stable to growing population of Siberian Cranes. The Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation have been used for conservation planning and effectively incorporate adaptive management practices for the Siberian Cranes at species and habitat levels. We identified key threats and assessed underlying causes. Most threats are to wetland habitat and the most significant threats are found in China including dams and water diversions, conversion of wetlands to agriculture or aquaculture, human disturbance, economic development, pollution, and climate change. Conservation action now focuses on the following geographic regions and strategies: (1) Flyway level – population monitoring and community awareness; (2) China wintering site at Poyang Lake – sub-lakes management, visitor management, and community awareness; (3) China long-term staging and short-term stopover sites – applied research and application of best management practices for key wetlands; and (4) Russia breeding area – applied research and legal protection. This talk will review our efforts to develop sub-lake management strategies at Poyang Lake and to incorporate spatial aspects into the Open Standards planning tools.