Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and the Environment, Mr. Kirill Jenkov (pictured left), signed the MoU on behalf of his Government. In so doing, the Russian Federation joins the eight other signatories to the MoU (Azerbaijan, China, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), which was originally negotiated in 1993 under the auspices of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS).

Threatened with extinction, the Siberian Crane is listed in CMS Appendix I. It survives in three remnant flocks or populations, which winter in the Islamic Republic of Iran, India and China, respectively. Signatory States to the MoU commit themselves to implement a comprehensive Conservation Plan for the species across its migratory range. Already a leading player in Siberian crane conservation activities (and a signatory to the first version of the MoU as originally drafted in 1993), Russia will now participate formally in coordinated actions throughout the vast range of this magnificent bird.

The Memorandum of Understanding and its Conservation Plan were revised and opened for signature in Ramsar, Iran, in December 1998. Implementation has accelerated with each meeting of the Range States. The last such meeting, hosted by the International Crane Foundation in Wisconsin in May 2001, agreed further important revisions and extension of the Conservation Plan. Funding from the Global Environment Facility of a US$10.5 million dollar project to conserve Asian wetlands important for Siberian Cranes and other waterbirds is expected to be confirmed later this year.

For more information please contact the CMS Secretariat.