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Last Updated:
11/30/2007
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The Flight Plan
THE PARTNERS IN FLIGHT BIRD CONSERVATION STRATEGY
An abundance of wild birds contributes to ecosystem health and provides
economic, recreational, scientific, and aesthetic values for society.
Fostering cooperative, voluntary, and coordinated habitat management on
private and public lands that will lead to the conservation of avian diversity
throughout the Western Hemisphere is the subject of the Partners in Flight
Bird Conservation Strategy, or simply, “The Flight Plan.”
Introduction
The Partners in Flight Bird Conservation Strategy summarizes the collective
actions that are being taken and that are necessary for the conservation
of birds. The Strategy provides the framework for Bird Conservation Plans
that set conservation priorities and specific objectives for bird populations
and habitat for every state and ecoregion in the country. Furthermore,
the Strategy lays out the means by which these Plans can be implemented.
This process involves an unprecedented level of voluntary cooperation
and coordination among state and federal agencies, private organizations,
industry, and the public. The power in the process lies in the synergy
that builds when such diverse and committed groups work together for a
common goal.
Partners in Flight and the Bird Conservation Strategy are common sense
approaches to the conservation of birds and their habitats. This Strategy
initially addresses only nongame land birds in the United States and depends
upon conservation decisions and actions taken at local and state levels.
However, it lays the groundwork for international cooperation on long-term
conservation of all birds throughout this hemisphere.
Basic Principles of The Flight Plan
- conservation when it should be done -- before species become endangered
- conservation based on sound science
- conservation that stresses both healthy ecosystems and wise
management of natural resources
- local and timely conservation within the context of large-scale objectives
and long-term plans
- conservation of habitats in breeding, migration, and wintering areas
- an informed constituency of people concerned about bird
conservation
- groundbreaking partnerships that foster voluntary cooperation among
public and private landowners
Development of Bird Conservation Plans will be a simultaneous and iterative
"bottom-up" and "top-down" process in which actions
are decided upon and taken at grassroots and local levels in the context
of priorities set at larger geographic scales. Coverage will be geographically
comprehensive, with plans developed for each ecoregion and state. Although
variability among plans reflecting local conditions and interests will
be expected and encouraged, regional and national level plans will be
developed to assure comprehensive attention to priority issues.
Focused, cooperative, and voluntary habitat conservation on a landscape
level is the key to bird conservation. A concentration on habitat will
improve conditions for all birds, whether migratory or resident, endangered
or common, game or nongame, and will contribute to the protection of other
animals, plants, and communities. Success will not be possible without
recognition of landowner objectives and encouragement of compatible uses
of the land.
Ultimately, the Strategy can be applicable to the conservation of the
over 800 species of birds in the continental United States and close to
4000 in the Western Hemisphere. Many of these birds bind our nations together
through annual migrations and their dependance on the conservation of
habitats across international boundaries. As plans become more international
and taxonomically comprehensive, they will build on the success of international
treaties, Partners in Flight, the North America Waterfowl Management Plan,
the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, and the many conservation
efforts of the federal government, state wildlife agencies, private conservation
organizations, and industry. Each of these programs will retain its own
special identity and constituency, yet each will become more effective
through greater collaboration and cooperation.
The Conservation Process
The Partners in Flight Bird Conservation Strategy consists of four steps
that result in the development and implementation of Bird Conservation
Plans.
Step I. Identify species and habitats most in need of conservation
The first step is to identify birds most in need of conservation action.
Priorities are set within biologically appropriate conservation planning
units, such as physiographic areas (e.g., Mississippi Alluvial Plain),
watersheds, or ecoregions (e.g., shortgrass prairie). The nature of planning
units will vary geographically, depending upon the distribution of birds
and their habitats and locally-achieved consensus decisions.
Within a planning unit, each species is prioritized according to a set
of criteria including population trends, size of geographic range, and
threats on the breeding and nonbreeding grounds. The values assigned to
each species provide an index of conservation need. High priority species
can be grouped into species suites that tend to occur together and presumably
respond similarly to habitat conditions and management
practices.
Step II. Establish population and habitat conservation objectives
There are two parts to this step:
- Describe the habitat conditions and management practices favorable
to priority species or species suites
- Set objectives for the nature, extent, and distribution of favorable
habitat conditions or populations of priority birds
In the first part, current principles of conservation biology and knowledge
of the natural history of birds and the ecosystems they inhabit are used
to describe conditions that will foster long-term maintenance of healthy
populations. This process can result in recommendations that may include
the number of birds necessary to sustain a population, the amount and
configuration of habitat that a population needs, habitat characteristics
that should be maintained within habitat blocks, and the temporal and
spatial stability of habitat conditions.
Turning an understanding of the needs of birds into specific landscape-level
conservation objectives is perhaps the most important, and often conceptually
the most difficult, component of the planning process. Objectives must
be set relative to a baseline understanding of the current status of bird
populations and habitat conditions. The nature of objectives will vary
among planning units on the basis of geography, land use history, and
conservation opportunities, and may be phrased in terms of numbers of
populations or habitat patches, densities of birds, or
population trends. Although Partners in Flight attention has been largely
focused on breeding terrestrial birds in the United States, these objectives
must include a broader consideration of potentially important migration
or wintering conservation issues. Each conservation planning unit must
be evaluated as a landscape rather than as a collection of independent
sites, and each unit must meet its bird conservation responsibilities
within the context of regional and international needs.
Conservation objectives must be set within the context of the economic
and sociological factors that influence conservation potential, particularly
landowner objectives. This strategy cannot succeed without the voluntary
and eager participation of private landowners. Objectives must also ultimately
be integrated with other conservation issues. Birds are a necessary but
not sufficient component of planning for the conservation of biological
diversity.
Step III. The Bird Conservation Plans: Actions to meet objectives
Three overlapping concepts capture the entire range of actions that have
been or can be taken to enhance the conservation of birds. There have
been and continue to be successes in on-the- ground application of these
concepts; Bird Conservation Plans will specifically and efficiently target
them for the accomplishment of defined landscape-level objectives.
(1) Landscape Prescriptions and Best Management Practices -- Many
birds can benefit more from the application of Prescriptions across landscapes
than from activities limited to designated sites. An example could be
maintenance of certain quantities of land in various successional stages
across a region. The exact sites for particular conditions will vary over
time. Best Management Practices can be
modifications of standard management practices, developed within landowners'
varied operational and economic constraints, that improve conditions for
birds in small but important ways. Examples include grazing and burning
programs that benefit prairie birds, timber management programs that benefit
forest birds, and maintenance of woodlots for in-transit migrants.
(2) Bird Conservation Areas -- These are large areas that sustain
or are capable of sustaining healthy populations of birds. Bird Conservation
Areas may be single land holdings specifically designated for conservation
purposes (such as a Wilderness Area of a National Forest). More typically
they include multiple cooperating landowners who voluntarily coordinate
their management practices to provide a constant base of habitat needed
by birds. The nature of bird conservation efforts in these areas must
be compatible with other social and economic priorities.
(3) Important Bird Areas -- Sites that are critical to rare species
or large concentrations of a species should be designated and managed
as Important Bird Areas. Examples include waterfowl (Laguna Atascosa National
Wildlife Refuge, Texas) and shorebird (Delaware Bay) concentration areas,
seabird nesting cliffs (Pribilof Islands), islands inhabited by threatened,
endemic species and subspecies (Santa Cruz Island, California), endangered
species areas (Kirtland's Warbler breeding habitat), and key landbird
stopover sites (High Island, Texas).
Step IV. Implement Bird Conservation Plans and monitor progress
Completion of the first three steps in this Strategy will result in a
Bird Conservation Plan. Implementation is the final and most challenging
step. Although the biological objectives in the Plans should be set within
conservation planning units, implementation may be more effectively accomplished
within politically-defined units through the efforts of state or provincial
working groups. A large array of conservation tools must be included within
these Plans. These include:
(1) Partnerships -- This most obvious and fundamental factor in
conservation is embodied in Partners in Flight Working Groups, but requires
continual expansion and improvement.
(2) Funding -- Accomplishment of these ambitious objectives will
require innovative funding mechanisms, including dedicated sources of
federal, state, and private funding.
(3) Research -- Development and implementation of these Plans will
stimulate new research efforts focused on key conservation questions,
including issues of natural history, population health, and accommodation
of birds in managed landscapes.
(4) Education and Outreach -- Achieving Plan objectives will require
an effective and comprehensive information and education campaign directed
toward policy makers, landowners, community leaders, and the general public.
(5) Policy -- National, state, and local governments must be active
and constructive partners in the conservation of birds and habitat. A
policy strategy should be developed in order to encourage the effective
application of existing incentives, policies, treaties, and laws and the
development of new initiatives for improved governmental participation
in conservation efforts.
The entire process must be "adaptive" in nature, with the flexibility
for adjustments in Bird Conservation Plans and their implementation in
response to observed results of actions. There will be two sources of
information that may indicate that changes are necessary:
(1) Regional, National, and International Plans -- The sum of
the efforts in conservation planning unit and state Bird Conservation
Plans must add up to adequate levels of protection throughout the ranges
of priority bird species. Simultaneous application of this Strategy at
these different geographic scales will help assure achievement of this
goal.
(2) Monitoring -- Finally, there must be a means of evaluating
the results of all of these efforts through a long-term commitment to
monitoring the status of bird populations. Beginning with the Breeding
Bird Survey and other existing efforts, a comprehensive monitoring program
is needed to measure results and influence further conservation and management
actions.
Partners in Flight and the Future of Birds
Bird conservation is a complex challenge. Birds use virtually every habitat
on the surface of the earth and recognize no political boundaries. A single
migrating bird may pass through a dozen countries that each has its own
conservation priorities and challenges. Conserving birds and their habitats
is beyond the capacity of any one organization, agency, or country. But
when many groups work together, and their efforts are fueled by the enthusiasm
of millions of birdwatchers and wildlife supporters, tremendous synergy
is possible. This Strategy and development
and implementation of Bird Conservation Plans will capture this synergy
and ensure the future of North America's birds.
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ATTENTION: WE NEED YOUR HELP! If you have questions about how The Flight
Plan will work or if you are interested in getting involved with implementation
locally or regionally, go to the "What is
Partners in Flight?" section or the "Directory"
section of this PIF Home Page to find local or regional Working Group
contacts.
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