Social media video featuring the project.
Black Crowned crane conservation, Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC)
Dessalegn Obsi Gemeda
Other projects
17 Feb 2015
Enhancing the Conservation of the Vulnerable Black Crowned Crane in Limu Districts of Jimma Zone. The Case of Ethiopia
4 May 2016
Enhancing the Conservation of the Vulnerable Black Crowned Cranes in Chora Boter District of Jimma Zone. The Case of Ethiopia
27 Jun 2018
Strengthening Public Education on Black Crowned Cranes and its Habitat Conservation in Seka Chekorsa District of Jimma Zone, Ethiopia
Black Crowned crane (Balearica pavonina L.) is Vulnerable species and experienced a high population declines due to habitat loss. The rapid conversion of wetlands into agricultural fields and lack of awareness on the values of wetlands are the major threats of the species. In order to overcome the existing problems there is an urgent need for public conservation campaign. This project is designed to increase public education and awareness creation on Black Crowned crane conservation in Seka Chekorsa district of Jimma zone in Ethiopia.
Black Crowned crane is Vulnerable and experienced a high population declines and disappearing in some countries due to habitat loss and degradation (Harris and Mirande, 2013). We live in global wave of biodiversity loss and declines in local abundance of species. Assessments of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species of 2016 reported that a rapid population decline is predicted to continue into the future. The IUCN classified the species as Lower Risk (LR) from 1988 to 2000, Near Threatened (NT) from 2004 to 2008, and then Vulnerable (VU) from 2010 onwards. The outcome of the previous projects in other districts of Jimma Zone indicates that the species is threatened due to lack of awareness about the values of wetlands, wetland drainage and conversion for agriculture and overgrazing. Black Crowned crane distribution, ecology and threats are poorly known in the region due to public knowledge gaps and lack of communities’ awareness on the species conservation. The Black Crowned crane conservation was conducted with the support of Rufford Small Grant for nature conservation starting from February 2015 onwards both in Limu Genet and Chora boter districts of Jimma zone. The species undergoes local daily and seasonal movements of up to several dozen of kilometers (Meine and Archibald, 1996). Because of daily and seasonal movements behavior of the species it is crucial to scaling up the conservation of the species to Seka Chokersa district of Jimma zone through public education and awareness creations.
This project will bring impacts on communities understanding towards the conservation of the Vulnerable Black Crowned crane and to recover the threats of the species through public education and awareness creation on the ecology, distributions and threats of the species for its conservation actions. Moreover, the public education and awareness creations will bring strong impacts on wetland restoration and conservation in the area which will contributes for the conservation of Black Crowned crane and other biodiversity in the area.