|
|
Building on 34 years of progress saving cranes, ICF’s 2007 Annual Campaign—Celebrating and Protecting the Cranes and Wetlands of Africa and Beyond —seeks your support to advance new projects that will dramatically improve ICF’s effectiveness at home and in crane conservation worldwide.
Through the campaign, we will build new exhibits at our world headquarters in Baraboo, Wisconsin, to display four species of live African cranes—the Blue, Wattled, Grey and Black Crowned. The exhibits will provide more natural, comfortable living conditions for the cranes and will greatly enhance our ability to inform and inspire the tens of thousands of visitors to ICF each year.
To parallel this investment, we will also expand our on-the-ground conservation programs in Africa and beyond where we work to protect wild cranes and the natural places needed for their survival. Growing our African programs will allow ICF to build new partnerships and to develop new strategies to address the many threats facing Africa’s wild crane populations.
Already we’ve raised over $1.8 of our ambitious $2.1 million goal. We invite you to consider making a special gift to help make these projects a reality. Your donation will be doubled, this year through challenge grants totaling $300,000 from the Dohmen Family Foundation, the Makray Family Foundation and ICF’s Board of Directors.
New African Crane Exhibits
As a place of gathering, research, education and inspiration, our campus in Wisconsin plays a vital role in pursuit of our mission to protect cranes and their habitats around the world. It is also home to our resident flock of cranes including the world’s only collection of all 15 species—over 120 individual cranes important for scientific, genetic and reproductive purposes.
Each year, approximately 25,000 people visit our cranes. As many of you know, seeing these birds live—hearing their calls, witnessing their movements—touches people in profound ways. Such experiences inspired George Archibald and Ron Sauey to found ICF in 1973 and to dedicate their lives to crane conservation. Today, offering these experiences provides ICF a powerful way to reach peoples’ hearts and minds with the story of cranes opportunities for their protection.
To strengthen this tool and the linkage between our exhibits and conservation programs, through the campaign, we will create new spaces to display our Blue, Wattled, Grey Crowned, and Black Crowned Cranes. These exhibits will emulate the habitats in which these species are found and provide more natural, comfortable living conditions for the cranes.
As we design the exhibits, we will emphasize sharing the cranes’ stories—their cultural and ecological significance and the strategies that have led to their successful protection. We seek to inspire new leaders for conservation and believe that enhancing our exhibits—and opportunities for students and families to connect to the cranes—is a powerful approach.
Expanding Conservation Programs in Africa
Complementing our education and outreach efforts at home, ICF has worked for over a decade with the Endangered Wildlife Trust and other partners to better understand the status and conservation needs of cranes and their wetland habitats in Africa. This research has guided an array of field conservation activities and over the years, we’ve made tremendous progress: the status and distribution of the Black Crowned, Blue and Wattled Cranes are now well understood; community-based projects to protect cranes and improve livelihoods have been initiated in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe; and, the Marromeu Complex of the Zambezi Delta has gained global attention and was designated a Ramsar site, a wetland worthy of international cooperation for its protection.
To build on these successes and to strengthen ICF’s effectiveness at advancing conservation opportunities and involving partners from within African countries vital for cranes, in the coming years, through the campaign we will:- Investigate the trade (illegal trafficking) of cranes and develop and implement strategies to abate this serious threat;
- Grow existing and develop new programs to build capacity of partners, communities, and governments to protect cranes and their habitats;
- Sustain regional collaborations and implement targeted research projects to better understand protection needs for the African Wattled Crane;
- Expand knowledge about the status and distribution of Grey Crowned Cranes and develop a conservation plan for this East African subspecies; and,
- Identify and take strategic actions to advance conservation of Black Crowned Cranes.
These actions are essential to a secure future for these species and the continued existence of healthy natural places for cranes and humans alike.
Celebrating and Protecting the Cranes and Wetlands of Africa and Beyond…
In addition to advancing these special projects for African cranes, through the campaign, we will generate support for our other activities around the world and in Wisconsin, including:- Caring for our world headquarters including all 15 species—ICF’s captive flock of over 120 cranes important for genetic and breeding purposes;
- Expanding our education and outreach programs to inform and inspire new generations of conservationists; continuing our successful work to reintroduce Whooping Cranes to reduce the likelihood of extinction for this endangered species;
- Developing a solution to corn damage associated with Sandhill Cranes, to support Midwest farmers and to learn more about mitigating crane/human conflicts globally;
- Building partnerships and capacity in southeast Asia to protect cranes, wetlands and local livelihoods; and
- Leading efforts at places such as Poyang Lake in China to protect the last migrating population of the endangered Siberian Crane.
Please consider involvement in this campaign. While doubling the impact of your gift, you will help position ICF for success at home and around the world as we educate, inspire and advance vital programs to save cranes and healthy natural places. With appreciation for those involved, ICF will offer lasting recognition in a special place within the new exhibits to all campaign donors of $1,000 or more.
To donate to the Annual Fund, click here.
Photo by Mike Endres, Wanderlust Photo.
|
|
|
|
|
