Grey Crowned Cranes - Wildlife Conservation Network

Sustainable solutions to critical conservation issues

When you support Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association (RWCA), you help provide home-grown solutions to protect and restore threatened wildlife and wild places in Rwanda and the East African region.

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RWCA's holistic approach for Rwanda's Grey Crowned Cranes.

Since its founding in 2015, Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association (RWCA) has removed hundreds of cranes from captivity, reintroduced them to the wild, protected and restored their wetland habitat, and worked closely with communities to raise awareness of conservation

Grey Crowned Cranes are a symbol of longevity.

Unfortunately, habitat loss and illegal trade have threatened their survival in Rwanda.

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Empowering Rwandan ownership and pride in wildlife.

Founded and led by Rwandan wildlife veterinarian, Dr. Olivier Nsengimana, RWCA’s team follows a multi-disciplinary approach to create sustainable solutions to critical conservation issues.

Find out more

Grey Crowned Cranes are a symbol of longevity.

Unfortunately, habitat loss and illegal trade have threatened their survival in Rwanda.

Find out more

Empowering Rwandan ownership and pride in wildlife.

Founded and led by Rwandan wildlife veterinarian, Dr. Olivier Nsengimana, RWCA’s team follows a multi-disciplinary approach to create sustainable solutions to critical conservation issues.

Find out more

During the breeding season, grey crowned cranes perform beautiful displays to attract their life-long monogamous mates: dancing, bowing, running, jumping, and making low booming calls. Pairs build their nests together, often hidden in the dense aquatic vegetation on a wetland’s edge, rarely in a tree. When RWCA first established, captive cranes (usually malnourished or injured and unable to breed) outnumbered the wild population (estimated at the time between 50 to 300). Luckily, thanks to RWCA’s efforts, their 2021 census showed a total of 997 wild grey crowned cranes in Rwanda, and a rising number of juveniles, suggesting breeding success.

Rwanda is a small country with an incredible variety of biodiversity, but it is challenged by high population density and poverty, resulting in high competition over land and natural resources. RWCA works closely with communities living around key crane habitats to make sure they genuinely understand the community’s challenges, raise awareness of the conservation status of cranes, restore habitat, reduce poaching, and improve livelihoods. RWCA also strives to provide young Rwandan veterinarians and conservationists with unique work experience that will inspire them to continue and advance the field of wildlife conservation in Rwanda.

Conservation Solutions

Tackling Wildlife Crime

Boosting Local Economies

Guiding Policy

Promoting Health

Tackling Wildlife Crime

In 2014, there were more grey crowned cranes in captivity in Rwanda than in the wild. So RWCA’s initial goal was to end the illegal trade through a national media campaign and temporary amnesty for people to return their captive cranes. RWCA then rehabilitated and reintroduced those cranes to the wild. RWCA in collaboration with the government have since removed all grey crowned cranes from captivity, rescuing over 250 cranes. Now, RWCA’s Marsh Rangers and Community Conservation Champions help monitor wild grey crowned crane habitat, patrolling, educating community members, and addressing any illegal activities.

Restoring Habitat

To restore habitat for biodiversity within Rwanda, RWCA has planted over 60,000 indigenous trees, in particular near crane habitats. They maintain a nursery of indigenous tree species, with trained and experienced botanists on staff, and are developing a seed bank to ensure that these important tree species do not die out. RWCA ensures that ongoing monitoring and community buy-in focuses on truly growing trees for the long-term rather than just planting them, which has led to a more than a 95% survival rate at their restoration sites.

Reducing Conflict

RWCA has established a network of Marsh Rangers and Community Conservation Champions at different biodiversity hotspots around Rwanda. These teams have reached thousands of Rwandans, collaborating with land owners, farmers, and community leaders to ensure the cranes are protected and key conservation messages are understood within communities while also addressing people’s challenges related to poverty and land use. RWCA’s community conservation agreements provide a negotiated benefit package for community members and agricultural cooperatives in wetlands, who, in return, commit to conservation actions and protect crane breeding sites.

Scientific Research

RWCA has been conducting an annual grey crowned crane population census in Rwanda since 2017. Their 5th census in 2021 documented 997 cranes, already doubling the Rwanda population from when RWCA first started. The census is a collective effort, with all of RWCA’s staff, Marsh Rangers, Community Conservation Champions, and volunteers trained in data collection methods using the CyberTracker app. In addition to grey crowned cranes, RWCA also performs research on other endangered wildlife across the country, including bats, sitatunga, shoebill, and grey parrots.

Expanding Education

RWCA aims to inspire the next generation of conservationists in Rwanda to understand the importance of wildlife and the environment through their Environmental Clubs. RWCA engages students through educational campaigns that involve comic books, competitions, quizzes, prizes, song, and dance, as well as outdoor activities monitoring wildlife. Their Educational Clubs have shown a positive impact on changing students’s attitude related to crane habitat and reducing illegal wildlife trade. Students have become direct advocates for cranes, even reporting instances of crane poisoning or human-wildlife conflict directly to RWCA.

Boosting Local Economies

RWCA established a social enterprise and educational outreach center in the heart of Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali, called “Umusambi Village” to collectively contribute to crane rehabilitation, habitat restoration, education, outreach, and boosting income for conservation. This social enterprise helps support RWCA’s conservation efforts around crane habitat throughout Rwanda, including further economic improvement efforts such as job creation and improved income for their Marsh Rangers and Conservation Champions, and supporting projects such as women’s sewing cooperatives, farming improvements, and rain water harvesting.

Guiding Policy

Most of the species RWCA are working with are affected by illegal wildlife trafficking. RWCA strives to address illegal wildlife trafficking by raising awareness and increasing collaboration between government institutions and other stakeholders. RWCA’s “Symposium on Illegal Wildlife Trafficking” brought together different sectors including law enforcement (Rwanda National Police, Border Control Officials, Wildlife Crime Department), prosecutors, the judiciary, journalists, and environmental organizations. As a result of the Symposium, law enforcement pursued further trainings related to wildlife crime, inspecting wildlife products, differentiating items, and collecting useful evidence.

Promoting Health

With a founder initially trained as a wildlife veterinarian, RWCA takes a One Health approach to conservation to achieve optimal health outcomes for people, animals, plants, and our shared environment. RWCA promotes the services that Rwandan wildlife plays in reducing diseases, such as insect-eating bats that reduce the spread of diseases, including malaria. Through their rehabilitation facility in Akagera National Park, RWCA also helps formerly captive or injured wildlife to relearn survival skills that they will need in the wild and monitors those individuals to assess how they adapt when released.

Tackling Wildlife Crime

Boosting Local Economies

Guiding Policy

Promoting Health

YOU ARE MAKING AN IMPACT FOR GREY CROWNED CRANES

When you get involved, donate, or spread the word on social media, you are truly making a better world for grey crowned cranes and the communities that live alongside them. Here’s a few ways you can help:

Connect with Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association on social media to learn more about their work and be a voice for cranes.

Visit the Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association website and sign up for their newsletter to deepen your connection with conservation.
VISIT WEBSITE

You can also help by visiting Umusambi Village, donating useful equipment or services, or volunteering in Rwanda with RWCA. In the past RWCA has had donations of binoculars, wet weather gear, laboratory equipment, and academic books.

Donate to support their work protecting grey crowned cranes in the wild. Through our donation model, 100% of your donation goes to the field with zero taken for overhead or administration.

It is a huge strength when we pull together in our efforts to save our planet. It is not going to be a one-person mission, it is going to be everyone’s mission to save our species, our whole planet.

Dr. Olivier Nsengimana, Founder & Executive Director, RWCA

Photography Credits: Photography Credits: Steve Potter, Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association, Frank Winkler, Conservation Heritage-Turambe, Michael Maguire

Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association

Sustainable solutions to critical conservation issues

RWCA's holistic approach for Rwanda's Grey Crowned Cranes.

Grey Crowned Cranes are a symbol of longevity.

Empowering Rwandan ownership and pride in wildlife.

Grey Crowned Cranes are a symbol of longevity.

Empowering Rwandan ownership and pride in wildlife.

Species Impact

Team Values