Close to US$10 million will be invested over the next six years in China to protect white cranes in a multinational project announced by the State Forestry Administration on Thursday.

Under the project, funded by Global Environment Facilities (GEF), China, Russia, Kazakhstan and Iran will take measures to remove the threat to major wetland areas that are important for white cranes and other migrant birds such as red-crowned cranes.

GEF will put US$10 million into the project, of which 4 million will be earmarked for China. The Chinese side will increase this figure with an input of more than US$5.9 million.

The project in China will involve the Poyang Lake region in East China's Jiangxi Province, Zhalong Nature Reserve in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Xianghai and Momoge nature reserves in Northeast China's Jilin Province, and the Kerqin Nature Reserve in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

According to Qian Fawen, a bird expert with the Chinese Academy of Forestry who is involved in the project, there are only around 3,000 white cranes left in the world.

Asia is the only habitat of the bird and now most of them live in East Asia, he said.

More than 98 per cent of the existing white cranes spend the winter in China, mainly in the Poyang Lake region, Qian said.

Statistics from the State Forestry Administration said China has listed the white crane as one of the first class of birds to be protected in the country and has set up 33 nature reserves where the birds can live.

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