A New National Oriental Stork Conservation Strategy (2030) adopted in Russia
The Strategy was elaborated by the efforts of ornithologists from FGBU Zapovednoye Priamurye, the Bastak Nature Reserve, specialists of WWF Russia Amur branch, NGO Amur Socio-Ecological Union, scientists from the Biological and Soil Institute, the Pacific Institute of Geography and the Institute of Water and Environmental Problems of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, employees of the Information and Analytical Center for Protected Areas (Roszapovedcenter) of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia.
In 2000, two largest international environmental organizations: IUCN (IUCN - International Union for Conservation of Nature) and WWF-Russia held an international meeting “Oriental stork and the conservation of wetlands in the Amur river basin”. It resulted in elaboration of the first national Strategy for this rare species conservation. Many of the recommendations of this document were implemented: more than 800 thousand hectares of stork habitats were taken under protection, artificial supports for nests were installed, fire-prevention treatment for trees with nests was introduced, and mass public awareness campaigns were organized.
Over the past decade, storks prefer to build nests on power transmission poles. This leads to electricity shortage and to the death of birds. Therefore, in 2013, WWF Russia signed an agreement with the Federal Grid Company, which by 2018 had installed 4300 special protection devices (more than 7300 are included in plans) scaring birds from sitting and nesting in dangerous places. Moreover, about 1000 special platforms have been installed in places that are safe both for wires and storks, 19 of them are already inhabited by storks. Within the framework of the joint program “A Home for a Stork”, video cameras were fixed on several nests on power transmission lines, allowing to monitor the behavior of birds online. This made it possible not only to obtain a huge amount of new scientific data, but also to raise awareness about the protection of storks and improve the image of the Federal Grid Company.
Birds are responding to human care by the growth of population numbers. In 2018, at least 727 inhabited Oriental stork nests were registered in Russia (775-885 pairs according to expert assessment) - twice as many as during the last survey in 1999 (380-430 pairs). According to Birdlife International, the world population of the Oriental stork at the end of the 20th century was estimated at 2.5 thousand adult birds. In 2018, it reached 6 thousand birds (including chicks), with 4.5-4.7 thousand of the Russian population.
An important component of WWF work was wide dissemination of information about the Oriental stork. A series of scientific articles, 3 collections of writings, one monograph and 5 brochures have been published. Over 20 years, 4 international conferences have been held (Amur 2000; Amur 2011; Amursk, 2004; Blagoveshchensk, 2018). Since 1998, the database of Oriental stork nests has been created basing of nest passports filled in accordance with a single standard and annually updated. All accumulated information is available on WWF Russia web portal Amurinfocenter (https://amurinfocenter.org).