Crane Net News
Number
2
December
2000
The newsletter of North East Asian
Crane Site Network

International Children Art Exhibition at the Town
Hall of Tomigusuku-son,
Okinawa, Japan, October 2000
Contents
Foreword
- The Crane Network in the 21st century Noritaka
Ichida
Report from the Working Group
Activities
of the Crane Network - Report from the Flyway Officer
Year
2000 Report of Crane Specialist Group and various members of
the Crane Specialist Group (extracted) George Archibald
Profile
of Network Sites: Lake Khanka and Xingkai Hu reserves
Report
of activities:
- Research workshop at Muraviovka, Russia
- Joint winter census 1999
- International symposium at Suncheon, Republic
of Korea
- Training course at Khingansky, Russia
- International children art exhibition
A joint effort to reveal relationships
among cranes, other waterbirds, water levels,
and aquatic food plants at Poyang Lake, China. Li
Fengshan,
New
GEF Project Begins on Wetlands for Siberian Cranes Crawford
Prentice
From
the editor Simba Chan
This publication is financially
supported by the Japan Fund for Global Environment and the Environment
Agency of Japan
Copyright Wild Bird Society
of Japan
All
right reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of
private study, research, criticism, or review, no part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission
of the copyright holder.
Photo
credits: Simba Chan
Foreword - The Crane Network
in the 21st century
Noritaka Ichida
Chairman
Crane Working Group

Mr.
Noritaka Ichida and Miss Kaori Matsui (Wetlands International
Japan),
at the eve of the launch of the
Crane Network, March 1997
Dear friends,
I
have the pleasure to welcome you to the second issue of the Crane
Net News, the newsletter for the North East Asian Crane Site Network.
You
may know the Crane Network was launched in 7 March 1997 at Beidaihe,
China. I am happy that we have made a lot of progress in the last
three years. We now have eighteen network sites in all six range
countries along the crane migration routes in North East Asia.
We held a workshop on crane research in Russia in 1998, a symposium
on site conservation in the Republic of Korea and a training course
in Russia in 2000. The Crane Network will be more active in the
21st century, to build up bridges of conservation among
countries. Thank you very much for all who have supported the
network.
The
Crane Working Group was established in July 1998. In February
2000 we had the second Working Group meeting in the Republic of
Korea, and we devoted most of our time to discuss the Action Plan
for 2001-2005.
We
wish to develop the Crane Network gradually to include at least
20 more sites by the year 2005, and expand our geographic scope
to cover the range of Black-necked Crane in western China. At
the Korean meeting all members of the Crane Working Group agreed
since the sites important for cranes in North East Asia are also
important to the globally threatened Oriental Stork Ciconia
boyciana, we should also work on conservation of this species.
The
main focus of the Crane Network in the next five years will be
improvement of site management, education and work with local
communities for conservation. We are very grateful to the support
from the Environment Agency of Japan, the Japan Fund for Global
Environment, the Societe
des Eaux Minerales dqォヲvian of the Danone Corporate Group,
France and the French Global Environment Facility to training
courses and workshops on these subjects. I would like to thank
Ms Alison Duncan of the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux,
the BirdLife partner in France, to help in application of the
French funds for the Crane Network. I do hope this will strengthen
the communication and cooperation among networks in the North
East Asian and African-European flyways.
.We are
also happy to know that the International Crane Foundation, an
old friend and partner to crane conservationists in Asia, is conducting
the GEF Project on the conservation of the eastern population
of Siberian Crane under the framework of the Crane Network. With
all the support from site managers and conservationists in the
region, we believe we will achieve the best results in our activities.
When
I am writing this foreword I learnt our old friend, Dr. George
Archibald, is retiring from the President of the International
Crane Foundation. Everybody working on conservation of cranes
knows and loves George, he has contributed much to conservation
of crane throughout the world. I do hope George will find more
time in his academic pursue, and it is nice that he would continue
his work in Asia.
I
would also like to congratulate Jim Harris to be promoted to be
the President of ICF. Jim has been taken part in the Crane Network
activities from the beginning and is still giving excellent advice
at the Working Group. I am sure with the help of Jim we will move
a big step forward in the conservation of crane in Asia.
From
the start we have been receiving great supports from the Environment
Agency of Japan to establish the Crane Network, which was initiated
from the satellite tracking of crane migration in the early 1990s
by the Wild Bird Society of Japan. Government agencies of the
region, namely the State Committee for Environmental Protection
of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Nature and the Environment
of Mongolia, the State Forestry Administration of the Peopley=Republic
of China, the Nature Conservation Center of the Democratic Peopley=Republic
of Korea and the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea,
have also been kindly supporting the activities of the Crane Network.
Their support and guidance is essential for the success of crane
conservation in North East Asia.
However,
the fundamental elements of any network are individuals. We need
your support and suggestions for improvement of our activities.
Please let us have your comments, and help us to conserve cranes
and important habitats in North East Asia.
The
20th century is a century of reconsideration of our
own life-style. We now understand we should conserve and co-exist
with nature. On the eve of a new century, we are happy to see
the changes in human attitude. With your help, we can make this
a much better century to live in, and the cranes, a symbol of
happiness and longevity, will be seen flying freely in more and
more places.
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