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Blue Crane rehabilitation enclosure

Blue Crane rehabilitation enclosure

News From the Field

Blue Crane rehabilitation enclosure opened at Kogelberg Biosphere Wildlife Rescue and Training Centre

 

 

Blue cranes are being injured by powerlines and fence collisions, creating an urgent need for the care and rehabilitation of the species.  To address this, a Blue Crane rehabilitation facility has been established in the Overberg region of the Western Cape.  

The enclosure at a wildlife rehabilitation facility at the Kogelberg Biosphere Wildlife Rescue and Training Centre was constructed by Haygrove South Africa in collaboration with the Kogelberg Biosphere NPC, and funded through the International Crane Foundation/Endangered Wildlife Trust and Leiden Conservation Foundation. 

The first of its kind in the Western Cape, it serves a region where the need for services to deal with cranes living in agricultural habitats and often injured in collisions with fences and powerlines, is great.  The 4,000 m2 enclosure houses injured Blue Cranes during their rehabilitation. It is large enough to enable them to stretch and exercise their flight muscles, allowing for better outcomes on release. Rehabilitation will reduce the number of mortalities and result in improved survival of the species, which is in decline. 

Blue Cranes are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Species.  Blue Crane densities in the Overberg are 4-5 times higher than in the rest of the country.    

 

 

 

 

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Fifth National Crane Festival

Fifth National Crane Festival

News From the Field

International Crane Foundation joins Ugandan Government to celebrate Fifth National Crane Festival 

By Barbara Hamoonga (Communications and Marketing Specialist, Africa Programs – ICF and EWT partnership)

 

 

 

The critical importance of wetlands and sustainable development are among the messages conveyed to community members, conservationists and policymakers at the annual Crane Festival in Uganda at the end of February.  

On 28 February, the International Crane Foundation joined the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife and Antiquities and Isingiro District Local Government, to celebrate the Fifth National Crane Festival under the theme “Investing in wetland conservation for the benefit of people, cranes and other biodiversity.”  

The Endangered Wildlife Trust partners with the International Crane Foundation to conserve cranes across Africa, most notably the Grey Crowned, Blue, Wattled and Black Crowned cranes.   

This year’s festival was held at Isingiro District Local Government Headquarters, Isozi cell in Rwekubo Ward where the critical importance of wetland conservation was highlighted alongside promoting sustainable development initiatives. 

The event served as a platform for raising awareness about crane and wetland conservation while celebrating successful community-based conservation initiatives. The festival featured practical demonstrations of sustainable wetland management practices and created networking opportunities for conservation financing. 

“I am pleased to announce that the Government is working on strengthening policy frameworks to enhance protection of critical wetland habitats, support community-based conservation initiatives, integrate conservation priorities into district development plans and strengthen enforcement of environmental regulations,” revealed the Isingiro District Chairman, Mr. Alone Turahi (LCV) on behalf of the Chief Guest, Hon. Lt. Col (Rtd) Dr. Rwamirama Bright, the Minister of Animal Industry and Fisheries,  as he officiated the event.  “These commitments reflect our understanding that investing in nature is investing in our people and our future.”  

“The Fifth National Crane Festival represents more than just a celebration – it’s a testament to Uganda’s commitment to conservation and sustainable development. As we witness the alarming 80% decline in Grey Crowned Crane populations over the past 25 years, this festival serves as a crucial platform for uniting communities, policymakers, and conservation partners in protecting these magnificent birds and their wetland habitats.  

“Together, we can ensure that future generations will continue to witness the dance of the cranes across Uganda’s landscapes,” stated the ICF’s Uganda Country Manager, Patrick Engoru. 

Since establishing its presence in Uganda in January 2020, the ICF/EWT partnership has engaged extensively with local communities about sustainable conservation practices, developed partnerships with government institutions, including the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, and implemented community-based conservation programs that balance wildlife preservation with human prosperity.  Part of awareness raising included the annual Crane Festival as a flagship event for conservation awareness and community engagement.

 

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Integrating Conservation and Health

Integrating Conservation and Health

 

Integrating Conservation and Health Action pays dividends for women in Rwanda

 

Integrating Conservation and Health

 

An initiative being driven by the Margaret Pike Trust in the Rukiga district of Rwanda, in partnership with the Rugarama Hospital, the International Crane Foundation/Endangered Wildlife Trust and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, is having significant and unexpected benefits for women facing gender-based violence.  

This is according to a data analysis by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.   The Trust has been working in the Rukiga district with its partners since 2021 to deliver and evaluate an integrated conservation, health and livelihood project benefitting 50,000 people.

Data shows that due to our innovative project design: 

  • Women are more protected from gender-based violence, which is prevalent locally with one in three women in Rukiga experiencing it; 
  • Women were 25% more likely to choose a long-acting and reversible contraceptive method, which is more effective at preventing an unintended pregnancy; and 
  • More women have attended health services and benefitted from improved sexual and reproductive health services, and gender-based violence screening and follow-up services, which have not previously been available.

Zeneb Musiimire, East African Community Specialist at the International Crane Foundation/Endangered Wildlife Trust, reflects on the findings: “Being from Rukiga, I have seen the devastating impacts that gender-based violence has in our communities. I am reminded of an old saying in Rukiga, which questions whether a man really loves his wife, if he does not beat her. These attitudes are hard to change, but thanks to our partnership with the Margaret Pyke Trust and our integrated project design, we have been able to help women like never before.” 

Kathryn Lloyd, Senior Manager: Programmes at the Trust says:  “Research has shown just how prevalent gender-based violence is in Rukiga’s wetland communities and how it intersects with poor family planning services, poor crop yields, poverty, and food insecurity. We knew that our integrated project design would likely have greater outcomes for health, conservation and livelihoods, but we hadn’t anticipated the direct benefit we would have for women facing such horrific violence. We are proud to stand with our partners against gender-based violence.”

Kerryn Morrison, ICF/EWT Senior Manager: Africa,  says of the project and its findings: “Integrating the communities, that share the landscapes that we are working in, into our conservation solutions provides real opportunities for our impact to be scaled and diversified beyond what we intended.  This is a real example of how 1+1=4, and how true impact and scale up happens when an integrated approach is taken”. 

 

Integrating Conservation and Health

 

Integrating Conservation and Health

 

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** More information about the impacts in Rukiga can be read in the Margaret Pike Trust’s latest project brief.

Wattled Crane downlisted regionally

Wattled Crane downlisted regionally

 

Wattled Crane downlisted regionally from Critically Endangered to Endangered

Wattled Crane downlisted regionally

 

Concerted and targeted conservation efforts by the Endangered Wildlife Trust/International Crane Foundation partnership, Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife (EKZNW), other NGOs and farmers and landowners across the Drakensberg, have delivered another success—the downlisting of the Wattled Crane from Critically Endangered to Endangered.  

 The regional downlisting is a remarkable conservation success and will be published in the latest edition of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species at the end of May 2025.  Wattled Cranes (Bugeranus carunculatus) were listed as regionally Critically Endangered in 2015 with only 267 individuals recorded in the KwaZulu-Natal aerial survey of that year. This aerial survey has been conducted for 32  years in partnership with Eskom and EKZNW as  KwaZulu-Natal is the stronghold for the species in South Africa.  

 A regional downlisting means that in South Africa, the Wattled Crane is no longer declining, but the population remains small and vulnerable to threats with an estimate population of only 304 being counted in 2024. Despite this positive trend in KwaZulu-Natal, the global population (including, but not limited to South Africa) remains on the decline and urgent conservation attention is required to safeguard populations outside of KwaZulu-Natal.  

 The latest downlisting follows the reclassification of Cape Vulture from Endangered to Vulnerable in 2021, also due to the success of targeted conservation efforts by a large number of organisations, including the Endangered Wildlife Trust and partners. 

 The EWT began research and conservation action to Africa’s crane species in 1994. Efforts to-date have included monitoring, research to better understand their movement and ecological needs, power line investigations and mitigation in partnership with Eskom, supporting farmers and landowners to protect their breeding sites,  conservation of key areas through the promotion of sustainable management practices, extensive education with landowners and rural communities, as well as understanding the crane trade and inclusion of key crane areas into the Biodiversity Stewardship Programme.  

 More recently, with improved technologies such as transmitters that can be placed on the Wattled Cranes, we are deepening our understanding of the nonbreeding species that do not hold territories, to understand their movement patterns and how they use the landscape differently to breeding birds. In addition, we are using drone mapping to enhancing our grasp of the hydrogeomorphology characterisations of wetlands used by Wattled Cranes. This information will be vital to the rehabilitation of wetlands to expand the habitat utilised by these unique birds, which will enable the species to expand outside its current range.  

 Our work in Mpumalanga will also reveal critical information on the potential connectivity between populations in the different provinces.  Work will continue with farmers to maintain the conservation of the species in its core range and thus protect the landscape through Biodiversity Stewardship Schemes.  This will be supported by long-term funding through carbon trading in the grasslands where they live. 

 The EWT would like to thank its funders and donors, especially the Dohmen Family Fund, Rand Merchant Bank and Eskom that have been significant contributors over the last 30 years.  

  “The downlisting reflects the effort that has been placed on the species over the last 30 years, and highlights the importance of collaborating when protecting a species, and their grasslands and wetlands habitats that we all depend on, said Dr Damian Walters, the South African Regional Manager for the African Crane Conservation Programme.

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Conserving the African Penguin

Conserving the African Penguin

Conserving the African Penguin is critical for South Africa’s economy and reputation: Report

By Lauren Waller (Regional Planning Coordinator, ewt) and Eleanor Momberg (Communications manager, ewt)

 

 

The loss of the African Penguin would be a very large reputational risk to South Africa, the moral custodian of the species.  

The African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) only occurs in Namibia and South Africa. 

“Just as South Africa’s foreign policies and economic decisions contribute to its reputation, its position on environmental stewardship and the measures it implements to protect global assets, for which it is perceived as a guardian, will shape its international brand,”  state the authors of the Assessment of the Value of African Penguins published by the Endangered Wildlife Trust towards the end of 2024. 

The study was commissioned by the EWT in collaboration with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. 

The African penguin is the only penguin species that breeds on the African continent and is endemic to the southern African coast. The species has declined from an estimated 0.5-1 million breeding pairs in the early 1900s to the approximately 42 500 counted in 1991, and 8324 in 2023. The remaining birds are mostly found in seven colonies in the Western and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa.  

Several factors have contributed to their population decline. Initially, a key reason was habitat destruction through Guano harvesting and egg collection. However, over the last few decades, a shortage of small pelagic fish species, the penguins’ main food source, seems to have been the main contributing factor. Increased vessel traffic and the resulting noise pollution has also contributed to the decline.  

This study aimed to provide an assessment of the value of the African penguin in South Africa to inform decision-makers at all levels of government, conservation organisations and other stakeholders involved in decision making around African penguins.  

While determining whether the economic value of penguin conservation is useful to inform policy decisions, it was acknowledged that it represents only one way to think about conservation. Besides economic arguments for threatened species conservation, arguments for species protection can also be made for moral reasons, or be linked to South Africa’s international commitments under the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity to halt all species extinctions.  

Based on the estimation of tourism value, existence value, property benefits, educational and media-related benefits, the total value of the penguin colonies of South Africa was estimated to be between R1,946 million and R4,545 million in 2023.  

 

Tourism value  

Tourists visiting penguin colonies generate revenues for the park authorities and for a range of tourism-related business, all of which generates knock-on effects in the economy.  

Tourists visiting the Boulders penguin colony in Cape Town generated around R95 million in entrance fees for SANParks in November 2023. Based on visitor surveys, the total expenditure in South Africa related to the Boulders penguin colony was estimated to be in the range of R535.6 – 2273 million in 2023 based on median and average visitor expenditure, respectively.  Based on spatial data, and fairly conservative assumptions, it was estimated that Boulders accounted for approximately R505 million of tourism expenditure, and that the remaining penguin colonies in South Africa generated some R108.3 million in tourism expenditure.  

The total tourism value of all penguin colonies was thus estimated to be in the range of R613 – 2702 million in 2023.  

 

Existence value  

The report found during its survey of Capetonians that people benefit from knowing that African penguins exist and that they are willing to pay for their conservation. From the survey, it was determined that the aggregate willingness to pay for penguin conservation in Cape Town was in the order of R551 – R731 million per year. Even though this attenuates with distance, it is assumed that South African residents outside of Cape Town would also be willing to pay for penguin conservation. If extrapolated to the rest of the country, it is estimated that South Africans would be willing to contribute up to R1,101 million to know that penguins continue to exist, that they have an option of visiting them in future, and protecting them for future generations.  

Among the other benefits in penguins in areas such as Simonstown and Betty’s Bay, where penguins live in close proximity to built-up areas, include education and environmental stewardship. The study found that publications on penguins generated subsidies of at least R1.9 million in 2023. Penguins also star in advertisements for Cape Town and films and documentaries, such as Penguin Town,, and have not only entertained but also raised awareness about penguin conservation issues. The direct media related value of the penguin colonies was estimated to be almost R2.9 million per year.  

The report states that successfully conserving the African penguins is not a one agency issue, but requires big systemic changes. Ultimately, improved management and policy is going to be the answer: an ecosystem approach to fisheries is needed and Ocean health needs to be better managed.

Read 2024 PRESS RELEASE
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