George Archibald

George William Archibald (born July 13, 1946 in New Glasgow , Nova Scotia , Canada ) is a Canadian conservationist . He founded the International Crane Foundation in 1973 and led international crane protection projects .

Life

Early career

Archibald is the son of Donald and Lettie Archibald, née MacLeod. In 1965 he worked as a bird ringer in the Department of Lands and Forests in Nova Scotia. In 1965 he began as a research assistant in comparative vertebrate anatomy at Dalhousie University in Halifax , Nova Scotia, where he graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science. From 1966 to 1967 he was an avian breeder at the Alberta Game Farm. In 1968 he worked as a naturalist in Fundy National Park in New Brunswick . Between 1968 and 1971 Archibald completed graduate studies that included research on comparative behavioral biology and the evolutionary relationships of cranes. In 1977 he received his doctorate with a thesis on "The Unison Call Of Cranes As A Useful Taxonomic Tool" for Ph.D. at Cornell University .

Conservation work

From 1972 to 1973 Archibald fieldwork operation of red-crowned cranes at Brolgakranichen and Eastern Saruskranichen in Japan and Australia , by the New York Zoological Society was supported. In 1973 he founded the International Crane Foundation (ICF) with Ron Sauey (1948–1987) in Baraboo , Wisconsin , where he served as its first director until 2000.

Archibald researched the ecology of eight endangered crane species in Australia , Bhutan , China , Iran , India , Japan , Russia, and the United States . In 1974 he traveled to Korea , where he succeeded in studying the white-naped crane for the first time in its wintering area. In the same year he was also able to detect the rare nipponibis in Korea, which at that time was considered to be almost extinct. He led a successful campaign to protect the Hangang Estuary, which is located in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea and is an important winter and migration area for the white-naped crane.

Archibald supported the organization of nine working groups for cranes, including the work of over 900 scientists in 64 nations. Each working group and many subgroups hold regular conferences every two to four years, the results of which are then published in research reports. Through the activities of the various working groups, Archibald sponsored actions that resulted in more than five million hectares of wetlands in Asia being protected, a large part of which is in China and Russia. During his leadership at the ICF, awareness-raising programs were implemented with the aim of sensitizing the local population in remote regions of Africa, Australia and Eurasia to nature conservation.

In 1984 the ICF began raising cranes in isolation and preparing them for release. In 1986 the facility "Crane City" was founded, where it was possible to successfully breed all 15 crane species and to set up a seed bank . In January 1987, Archibald's partner Ron Sauey died at the age of only 38. From 2000 to 2003 Archibald was Chairman of the Board of the International Crane Foundation. Since 2003 he has been the leading conservationist for this organization.

Awards

Archibald was repeatedly honored with awards, including in 1983 with the Order of the Golden Ark , 1984 with the MacArthur Award of the MacArthur Foundation , in 1985 the Gold Medal of the World Wildlife Fund , 1987, the Global 500 Roll of Honor Award of the United Nations Environment Program , 2005 with the Wildlife Conservation Medal of the Zoological Society of San Diego and in 2012 with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. In the same year he received the award Member of the Order of Canada . Archibald also holds honorary doctorates from Southern Methodist University in Dallas , Texas (1996), Mount Allison University in Sackville , New Brunswick (1998), Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia (2002), and the University of Wisconsin in Madison (2004) ) and from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (2014).

Memberships

Archibald is a member of the following organizations and societies: Bombay Natural History Society, Canadian Wildlife Service, Chicago Academy of Sciences, Chinese Association for Wildlife Conservation, IUCN , WWF , WWF Thailand, New York Zoological Society, Oriental Bird Club, Ornithological Society of China, Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service, South African Ornithological Society, United States Fish and Wildlife Service , Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, Livingston Ripley Waterfowl Santuary and the Whooping Crane Recovery Team.

Works (selection)

In addition to numerous articles in scientific journals and nature conservation magazines, Archibald wrote book chapters on the family of the cranes (Gruidae) in the Handbook of the Birds of the World (1996) and in Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia (2002). He was also involved in the IUCN 's Cranes: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan (1996) .

literature

• Celia Jaes Falicov: The Environment Encyclopedia and Directory 2001 . 3rd edition, Europa Publication Ltd, 2001. ISBN 978-1857430899 , pp. 461-462
• Nicholas Polunin: World Who Is Who and Does What in Environment and Conservation , Routledge, 2014. ISBN 978-0-415-85331-6 , p. 13

Web links

• Profile on LinkedIn with curriculum vitae (registration required)
• Profile at the International Crane Foundation