Villages Play Key Role in Amur Crane Comeback

MURAVYOVKA PARK, Far East ?€” When the Muravyovka nature preserve in Russia's Amur region first opened nine years ago, it was home to just six breeding pairs of endangered cranes.

Now there are 21 pairs of red-crowned, white-naped and hooded cranes inhabiting the preserve, which spans a vast stretch of grassy wetlands.

Swooping up and down through the white morning mist, the cranes' feathers catch the light like gems in a chandelier. Watching them, a scientist whispers "shh, shh" to a group of onlookers ?€” although no one has uttered a word.

The cranes' growing numbers are largely due to the so-called Amur Project, a rare success story pairing conservation efforts with community initiative.

Started by Russia's Socio-Ecological Union in 1992, the project focused primarily on creating an appropriate breeding habitat for the area's endangered crane population. It has since grown to include a large team of local volunteers, a summer camp for area children ?€” and even a budding partnership with conservationists in neighboring China.

Sergei Smirensky, the founder of the Amur Project, says the Muravyovka cranes could not thrive without the support of the local community ?€” and vice versa.

"During this difficult transition to an open economy, conservationists must work with regional and local governments and communities to find sustainable alternatives for improving economic conditions," he said.

Smirensky, an ornithologist from Moscow State University, said he first visited the region while conducting doctoral research near the Amur River. He later won wide recognition for organizing a conference ?€” attended by representatives from the International Crane Foundation and Russian and Chinese scientists ?€” that laid the groundwork for the Amur crane project.

The Amur wetlands covers a wide region uniting southern broad-leafed forests and northern taiga. The Amur River basin is the primary breeding ground for the cranes. And because the birds' migratory path stretches across the Russian border to neighboring China, a harmonious ecological effort between the two countries is key to the cranes' survival.

Last summer, Amur Project staff invited Chinese conservationists to visit the Muravyovka preserve. Impressed by the Russian team's results, the Chinese researchers agreed to a cooperative partnership that would further expand the birds' protected habitat. This summer, work will begin on a second preserve in the Heilongjong province in northern China.

The five-year cooperative program will begin with a team of 15 Russian environmentalists, teachers and students traveling to help lay the groundwork for the Chinese park. In return, Smirensky said, his team hopes to learn more about Chinese conservation strategies. Educational exchange programs for Chinese and Russian students are also in the works.

"This is a mutual partnership," he said. "I'm sure that improving Chinese-Russian relations on the borderlands will ultimately help develop stronger links with Moscow as well."

Cranes are the focus of conservation efforts worldwide, with 11 of the 15 species listed as endangered as the spread of construction and housing developments cuts into their natural habitats. The red-crowned is the second-rarest of the cranes ?€” after the North American whooping crane ?€” with only 1,900 remaining in eastern Russia, China, North Korea and Japan.

Smirensky said when he first began studying the diminished population of Amur region cranes, he was surprised to find the birds living among human habitats. It was then, he said, that he realized the participation of the local community would be crucial to the cranes' survival.

Amur Project members, who initially faced resistance from local government officials and village residents, eventually won support by becoming active contributors to the community. The project began to broaden its scope by offering a summer camp to educate local children about conservation efforts as well as giving them a green, safe place for games, swimming, English lessons and arts and crafts.

Project members say the camp had immediate benefits. A popular anecdote among park workers is the story of a young camp attendee, who, upon learning that the village tradition of burning crops was polluting the environment and hurting the cranes, was able to stop her father from starting fires at their own farm.

Since the park's opening, the project's researchers have continually sought creative solutions as new problems arise. When the cranes began feeding on the corn crops of local farmers, project members planted a large diversionary crop, which succeeded in distracting the cranes from farmers' fields. Since then, the park has also begun growing yearly crops of soybeans, the harvest of which has gained the project a degree of financial independence.

Christopher Wilde, an American teacher volunteering at the summer camp, says the participation of the local community has been a key factor in the project's success.

"It has been through mutual growth with the surrounding villages that the park has done so well," he said.

Another branch of the Amur Project now under way is the creation of a school for the economically challenged region's growing numbers of orphaned children. Sergei Nedelsky, who will work as a volunteer teacher, says the school is meant to help teach young people the skills they will need to survive as adults.

"We hope to help many valuable youngsters, who society loses to drugs and criminal arrest, by teaching them skills to support themselves," he said.

The park has also caught the attention of Yevgeny Firer, a Russian businessman and zoologist, who after visiting Muravyovka pledged funds to help set up field research projects, which were brought to a halt following the 1998 financial crisis.

Firer's funds will come in the form of stipends for Moscow students to conduct field research in the Russian and Chinese preserves.