Join our President and CEO Rich Beilfuss for his webinar on Thursday, Jan. 14, at 11 a.m. Central Time! Click here to register.
Rich will share stories and insights about the coming year in crane conservation and our transformational projects to secure cranes, the wetlands, watersheds and flyways they depend on, and the communities who share these lands.
Our work includes sustainable livelihoods, thriving floodplains for people and wildlife, and carbon trading to save vital crane landscapes in Africa. We will explore best management practices across vast flyways, new protected landscapes and the role of Sarus Rice to save cranes in Asia. And we will look at the year ahead for saving our rarest crane – the Whooping Crane – and keeping our most abundant crane – the Sandhill Crane – abundant. Join us for a preview of an exciting year to come!
Since 1996, the International Crane Foundation has worked with the Royal Society for the Protection of Nature (RSPN) in Bhutan to study and protect Black-necked Cranes and their habitats. In the winter, the Kingdom of Bhutan is home to around 600 Black-necked Cranes migrating from their breeding grounds in the upper Tibetan plateau. The Kingdom’s high-altitude wetland habitats are ecologically rich, and the surrounding communities are deeply interwoven with vibrant cultural histories and living traditions.
Explore the many ways Bhutanese culture intersects with conservation strategies, policies, research and protected area designations for Black-necked Cranes. Please join us for remarkable stories of cranes and the people committed to their protection in Bhutan, the Land of the Thunder Dragon, with Dr. George Archibald, Co-Founder of the International Crane Foundation; Jigme Tshering, Communications and Education Division Chief with RSPN; and David M. Hecht, Ph.D. candidate in Integrative Conservation and Anthropology at the University of Georgia. Click here to register.
South Africa’s eastern provinces of Mpumalanga, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape were once home to tens of thousands of Blue Cranes, their national bird and near-endemic species. But like Grey Crowned and Wattled Cranes, Grey Crowned Cranes suffered dramatic declines of up to 80% in the region, known for its rolling grasslands, fertile soils and abundant wetlands. In the early 1980s, conservationists raised the alarm – South Africa’s national bird and other two crane species could disappear if nothing was done to halt their declines.
Join South African Regional Manager Tanya Smith next Thursday, Jan. 28, at 11 a.m. Central Time for an overview of South Africa’s three crane species and the role of long-term conservation actions in reversing their declines. Click here to register.
Photo by Tom Lynn
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, unregulated hunting was a major contributing factor to the near extinction of Whooping Cranes. Today, we have come a long way with the conservation of this species, although shootings continue to occur. Since Whooping Cranes were listed as federally endangered in 1967, there have been 33 confirmed shooting incidents taking 43 individuals.
Join Lizzie Condon, the Whooping Crane Outreach Coordinator for the eastern flyway, on Thursday, Feb. 4, at 11 a.m. Central Time to hear what the International Crane Foundation has learned from past shooting cases. Lizzie will also discuss the innovative strategies we are using to address this issue in communities where Whooping Cranes occur. Click here to register.
Join our Highland Grassland Field Officer Bradley Gibbons and Blue Crane Ph.D. Candidate and Western Cape Field Officer, Leiden Conservation Graduate Fellow Christie Craig for their webinar on Thursday, Feb. 18, at 11 a.m. Central Time. Click here to register.
An estimated 30 percent of the world’s Blue Cranes population is found in the Karoo region of South Africa, a semi-arid area that is largely in a natural state and thus undeveloped. Therefore, the Karoo has the largest population of Blue Cranes in a natural and scenic habitat.
Bradley will share highlights of his eight years of Blue Crane conservation in the Karoo, and Christie will share some preliminary research results of her research over the last two years in the region.
