Partners in Flight: Conserving Bird Populations

Additional information: Partners in Flight Website Partners in Flight Partners List

Purpose of Initiative: The Partners in Flight (PIF) partnership of public and private organizations, begun in 1990, conserves bird populations in the Western Hemisphere through improved monitoring and inventorying, research, management, and education programs of birds and their habitats. PIF was organized because of the concern for the increasing number of bird species with declining populations. PIF works for the conservation of all terrestrial birds of the Americas.

Resources: Funding for the various PIF activities and products are provided by the public and private partners, dependent on their interests and capabilities. The United States government’s Fish and Wildlife Service is the lead agency for this initiative and funds a national coordinator and four regional coordinators to facilitate development of bird conservation plans. The combined resources of federal, state, academic, and local NGO partners are used in the development and implementation of these conservation plans. Please see the PIF website at www.partnersinflight.org for additional information.

Partners: PIF partners include 146 NGOs, 16 corporations, 60 state or provincial agencies, and 16 federal agencies in North and Central America A complete listing of the partners can be found at www.abcbirds.org/pif/pifsig.htm.

Partnership Efforts to Date: The inauguration of International Migratory Bird Day in 1993 was followed by the development of the Flight Plan in 1996. The Flight Plan continues to guide the Bird Conservation Plans (BPC), which together provide a comprehensive treatment of bird conservation issues. BPCs for the entire continental U.S. have been completed and national and regional planning is underway in both Canada and Mexico (www.birds.fws.gov/imbd.html). A searchable database (www.partnersinflight.org/pifneeds/searchform.cfm) has been created and several publications are available to bird conservationists (see www.partnersinflight.org/pubs).

Points of Contact: Antoinette J. Condo, Department of State (Phone: 202-647-0657, E-mail: condoaj@state.gov) and Terry Rich, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Phone: 208-378-5347, E-mail: terry_rich@fws.gov).