The need for bird conservation planning at the National scale has grown out of the realization among bird conservation leaders that despite ongoing conservation efforts, bird populations in North America still face tremendous threats to their long-term health. As a result of this realization, in the last 25 years we have experienced an unprecedented development of proactive, partnership-based bird conservation initiatives, many of which are described below.
Partners In Flight
Partners in Flight (PIF) was launched in 1990 in response to growing concerns about population declines of many land bird species and to emphasize the conservation of birds not covered by existing conservation initiatives. Partners in Flight is a cooperative partnership among federal, state and local government agencies, philanthropic foundations, professional organizations, conservation groups, industry, the academic community, and private individuals. The central premise of Partners in Flight is that the resources of public and private organizations in the Western Hemisphere must be combined, coordinated, and increased in order to achieve the greatest success in conserving bird populations in this hemisphere.
The North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP)
This effort was spearheaded by a consortium of private interest groups and government institutions who were concerned about record low numbers of game bird populations recorded in 1985. The consortium’s goal was to restore those populations to levels recorded in the 1970’s. The passage of the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) in 1989 provided funding for implementation of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP), which works through 11 regional partnerships, called Joint Ventures, to manage habitats important to waterfowl to achieve specific population targets.
The model established by the NAWMP has since been used by other wildlife conservation plans. As of the end of 2003, Plan partners had invested more than $2.2 billion to protect, restore, and/or enhance more than 8 million acres of waterfowl habitat.
The U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan
The US Shorebird Conservation Plan was created in response to: 1. observed declines in nongame shorebird populations, and 2. the lack of accurate baseline data on shorebird population sizes. With an initial grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Division of Federal Aid, the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences recruited a wide array of state and federal agencies, non-governmental conservation organizations, and individual researchers throughout the country to develop a plan for stabilizing and maintaining populations of shorebird species.
The Waterbird Conservation for the Americas Initiative
The Waterbird Conservation for the Americas Initiative was initiated in 1998 by the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.
North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI)
The North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) evolved from the need to coordinate and integrate the conservation planning, implementation, and evaluation efforts of national bird conservation initiatives to achieve a comprehensive, biologically based, landscape-oriented approach to conservation.
Started in 1999, NABCI is a coalition of government agencies, private organizations, academic institutions, and private industry leaders in Canada, the United States, and Mexico working to achieve integrated bird conservation that will benefit all birds in all habitats. NABCI participants aim to ensure the long-term health of North America's native bird populations by increasing the effectiveness of their bird conservation initiatives and programs, enhancing coordination among their initiatives and programs, and by fostering greater cooperation among the continent's three national governments and their people.
The Mission of NABCI is: “To deliver the full spectrum of bird conservation through regionally based, biologically driven, landscape-oriented partnerships.”
Boreal Songbird Initiative
The Boreal Songbird Initiative (BSI) is a new non-profit organization dedicated to educating Americans about the importance of the Boreal Forest to migratory birds. BSI is part of the Boreal Songbird Network, a network of U.S. organizations including the American Bird Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, the National Wildlife Federation, Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council, working to raise awareness about the Boreal Forest and assist efforts in Canada and Alaska to conserve it.
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