Recently, an international organization has expressed on the Internet that they hope to help call for support for the downgrade of red-crowned cranes.

However, as a leading Chinese NGO dedicated to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, based on long-term conservation work experience, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCDFF) believes that, downgrading the red-crowned crane's endangered degree, for example, from "EN" to "VU", will be extremely detrimental to the protection of the red-crowned crane mainland population living in China. Reasons include:

1. The increase in the number of red-crowned cranes is mainly due to the improvement in the population of Hokkaido, Japan. However, the Japanese Hokkaido population of the red-crowned crane is not related to the population of mainland population in China, its genetic diversity is extremely low (from the descendants of more than 30 individuals) and therefore cannot represent the entire red-crowned crane species.

2. The population of red-crowned cranes in China has declined sharply in the past 20 years, from 1200 in 2000 to less than 400 at present. The situation is still critical. If it is downgraded, it will be extremely detrimental to the protection of the red-crowned crane in the mainland population living in China.

CBCGDF believes that people from all walks of life are required to take active action, like caring for food safety and human health, caring for migratory birds and biodiversity protection, so as to help realize the vision of ecological civilization in which people and nature live in harmony. To this end, CBCGDF calls for the protection of the red-crowned crane and prevent the downgrade of the red-crowned crane.

Recently, CBCGDF received a report that about 20 red-crowned cranes are in captivity somewhere in the suburbs of Beijing. (Photo credit: CBCGDF volunteers)

Original Chinese article:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/H7dkhNF5bl3aDAQifmpCtA

By / Maggie, Lei