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Published in Spring 2001
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The North American Bird Conservation Initiative
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NABCI recognizes North American bird conservation needs.
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Read related article: Saving North America’s birds
As Scotty sits on the biologist’s arm preening himself, Jennifer and her classmates at Greenbriar Public School in Brandford, Ontario, learn about how peregrine falcons like him were once almost extinct. The lesson is part of Project School Visit, the Canadian Peregrine Foundation’s popular program that introduces the peregrine falcon to Canadian students in southern Ontario schools.
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| Photo: Canadian Peregrine Foundation |
| Project School Visit introduces students to peregrine falcons and teaches them why this raptor is endangered and what can be done to help. | The stars of Project School Visit travel to schools all over the province, but the range of wild peregrine falcons has declined in the past few decades. Taken together, North America’s three falcon subspecies once ranged over almost the whole continent, from the subarctic boreal forests of Alaska and Canada south to Mexico and into South America. But earlier this century, the peregrine falcon’s breeding range shrank and the bird nearly became extinct. Today, its populations are recovering because of severe restrictions on the use of DDT and the cooperative conservation efforts of governments, voluntary organizations and bird lovers throughout North America.
One of the reasons to save these birds is because they can tell us a lot about the state of our environment. Peregrine falcons and other birds that are high on the food chain are like the ‘canaries in a coal mine’ in which we all live. Peregrines only eat other birds, so healthy peregrine populations indicate healthy bird populations. Healthy hawk and owl populations mean healthy land and land mammals, such as mice, moles and rabbits.
The importance of birds
All kinds of birds are important to North America for ecological, economic, and aesthetic reasons. In their roles in insect pest control, plant pollination and seed dispersal, birds are an integral part of dynamic ecosystems and provide services worth hundreds of millions of dollars to agricultural and forest products industries each year. The tremendous interest in birdwatching, a cornerstone of the rapidly growing ecotourism industry, represents billions of dollars in revenue across the continent. Birds are also culturally important; for example, a common loon graces Canada’s yellow-gold one-dollar coin (nicknamed the "Loonie"), hummingbirds represent the god of fertility in many Mexican traditions and the bald eagle is the US national bird.
The importance of continent-wide habitat
Migratory birds need hospitable habitat in more than one country. The ecosystems many others rely on stretch across political borders. Hundreds of the bird species that live in North America are shared among all three nations. The loss or degradation of an area or habitat crucial for breeding or nesting in one country could spell their disappearance from the entire continent. So one country’s conservation agencies and voluntary organizations can not protect North America’s birds by working alone.
North American bird conservation partnerships
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| Photo: Canadian Peregrine Foundation |
| All three North American countries are taking steps to protect birds and their habitats and in the past few years the bird conservation community has made significant progress. Current conservation projects target the habitat and other needs of specific groups of species, such as waterfowl, shorebirds, colonial waterbirds, migratory and resident land birds, and various endemic and endangered species. For example, the North American Waterfowl Management Plan is maturing as a model of successful conservation. Partners In Flight is making a huge impact on landbird conservation in the United States and is beginning to gain significant ground in Canada. The strategy for the conservation of birds in Mexico is also off to a dynamic start. Shorebird Conservation Plans are under development in the United States and Canada, and efforts have begun for comprehensive protection for colonial waterbirds.
Some integration among these programs is underway and international cooperation for bird conservation has begun, but much more needs to be done. None of the existing programs alone has either the ability to bring together the diversity of players or the financial resources necessary to implement needs identified in planning activities and achieve full suites of conservation goals.
NABCI
In response to the issues and challenges for continental bird conservation, CEC launched the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) to create an opportunity to address the needs of birds in a cohesive manner. Through the combined effectiveness of these separate programs and cooperation through NABCI, progress will far exceed the total of their parts.
The North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) recognizes that:
- many bird species occupy broad geographic ranges;
- an individual species may require diverse and healthy habitats to complete its annual cycle;
- annual cycles often extend across international boundaries;
- many birds with diverse life histories and ecological requirements co-occur within single habitat types;
- social and political conditions in the three countries change, affecting the nature of conservation efforts;
- an integrated initiative encourages coordinated bird conservation actions;
- existing efforts are important and should not be compromised;
- and effective continental bird conservation requires additional resources.
Just as NABCI meetings bring interested participants together to develop a framework for consolidating the North American partnership for bird conservation, educational efforts like Project School Visit help youngsters learn about the needs of our migratory birds and instill a sense of shared responsibility in preserving bird habitat throughout the continent.
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