The Unifying Themes of National/International Bird Conservation Initiatives

The Unifying Themes of National/International Bird Conservation Initiatives

Implications to the Scope and Functioning of Joint Ventures

• Implications to the Scope of Joint Ventures

Topics…

• Implications to the Functioning of Joint Ventures

• Implications to Agencies/Organizations Individually

• The Unifying Themes: An Overview

“Implications to… Joint Ventures” Vs

“Implications to Agencies and Organizations”

Premise: Implications extend not only to the partnership but to the individual agencies and organizations that have accepted a measure of responsibility in implementing national and international plans.

Unifying Themes of National/International Bird Conservation Initiatives

• Population-based Goals and Objectives

North American WaterfowlManagement Plan - 1986

Breeding PopulationObjectives

Wintering PopulationTargets

Foraging Habitat LimitsWintering Duck Populations

Public Lands

Naturally FloodedLands

Private Lands

Reinecke et al. 1988Reinecke and Loesch 1996

62 million Breeding Ducks



• Sustainable Landscapes at Ecoregional (BCR) Scales

How Do We Utilize the Population Estimates and Objectives Listed in the Continental Plan?

How Do We Assess the Ability of the WGCP to Support Priority Species at Prescribed Levels?

What does this mean to my BCR?How do I derive habitat objectives?




• Progressive Refinement of Goals, Objectives, and Strategies (ARM)

Linking On-the-ground Management to Higher Scale Goals With Testable Assumptions and Hypotheses

North American Waterfowl Management Plan62 Million

Breeding Ducks

•Cross-seasonal Relationships•Historic & Contemporary Distribution Patterns

Habitat

Factors Limiting Carrying Capacity

Disease

Predation

Environmental Contaminants

DisturbanceForaging

Non-foraging

•Regional/Seasonal Limiting Factors

292 kcal/day

Harvested CroplandsRice 752Soybeans 121Milo 849Corn 970

HabitatDuck-Use Days

per Acre

Forested Wetlands

Moist-soil Area 1,386

50% red oaks 321

•Daily Energetic Demands of a Duck•Metabolic Energetic Capacity of Primary

Foraging Habitats

•Over Winter Survival Rate•Winter Period

•Inter-specific Competition

ArkansasIllinoisKentuckyLouisianaMississippiMissouriTennessee

Total

40,7701,378

84950,07622,6733,2924,491

123,527

9,9180

2542,1205,168

4631,906

60,050

186,485380

1,60280,69555,0478,326

29,966

362,500

237,1721,7582,475

172,89283,33812,08136,362

546,078

StateDabbling

DucksDivingDucks

WoodDucks Total

Habitat Threshold = 110*Survival

winter daysTarget state

0.85

Southern Illinois UniversityCooperative Wildlife Research Unit

USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Ducks UnlimitedInstitute for Wetlands and Waterfowl Research

Evaluating Rice Fields as Foraging Habitatfor Wintering Waterfowl: Status of NAWCA Evaluation Grant

Mississippi State UniversityDepartment of Fisheries and Wildlife





• Integrated, “Wall-to-Wall” Partnerships

1

Regionally-based…

Biologically-driven…

Landscape-oriented partnerships…

Delivering the full spectrum of bird conservation across the entirety of the North American Continent.

The NABCI Visionof Integrated Bird Conservation

North American Bird Conservation InitiativeA Population-based, Landscape-Oriented

Conservation Framework

Target: Landscapes capable of sustaining populations of priority species range-wide at prescribed levels.

Premise: By coordinating and leveraging its conservation actions through formal partnerships, the private, state, federal bird conservation community can achieve landscapes capable of sustaining priority species at prescribed levels.


Topics…




The Functional Elements of the Conservation Enterprise

• Planning

• Implementation

• Monitoring

• Evaluation

• Research

…Implications to the Scope of Joint Ventures


• Planning

• Implementation

• Monitoring

• Evaluation

• Research


Conservation Delivery Model

• Planning

• Implementation

• Monitoring

• Evaluation

• Research




• Integrated, “Wall-to-Wall” Partnerships

Relationship between “Unifying Themes” and “Functional Elements”


• Planning

• Implementation

• Monitoring

• Evaluation

• Research


Joint Ventures are being challenged to embrace the full spectrum of the conservation

enterprise as an iterative whole.


• Planning

• Implementation

• Monitoring

• Evaluation

• Research

Conservation Enterprise Business Model


Topics…




• Goals and Objectives

• Nature of Planning

• Management and Research

• Monitoring and Evaluation

• Technology

The Unifying Themes of Bird Conservation Implications to the Functioning of Joint Ventures





• Technology

Goals/objectives will be expressed in the context of population viability or system sustainability; derived from testable assumptions or predictions of biological response.






• Technology

Whereas traditionally…

Goals and objectives have tended to be programmatically derived, activity focused, and opportunity based.


Reestablish and maintain three viable sub-populations of LA Black Bear in the Tensas Basin, Red River Backwater, and Atchafalaya Basin of Louisiana.



Protect and restore 200,000 acres of bottomland hardwoods in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley.

Reestablish and maintain three viable sub-populations of LA Black Bear in the Tensas Basin, Red River Backwater, and Atchafalaya Basin of Louisiana. • Nature of

Planning



• Technology







• Technology

Planning becomes biologically focused and model-driven; directed at landscape-scale population/habitat relationships; focused less on temporally static decisions and more on supporting decisions over time. Planning is iterative and cyclic.

Planning has been akin to cataloguing and prioritizing program-specific opportunities; tending to be sporadic and focused on temporally static decisions; responding to administrative edict.







• Technology

M & R will be linked by explicitly stated, testable assumptions as to how populations are responding to changing landscapes and management prescriptions.

M & R tend to be disconnected, with management operating on the basis of intuitive, implicit assumptions and research focusing on academic interest.







• Technology

Monitoring and evaluation are essential for testing assumptions, evaluating uncertainty, and assessing landscape change and biological response.

Programs have tended to view M & E as an arm of “research” to inform harvest regulations; otherwise have been content with tracking accomplishments where administratively required.







• Technology

Conservation methods are highly demanding of spatial and relational database technologies, requiring core competencies and skills not traditionally associated with the conservation workforce.

The technology focus of conservation organizations has been on administrative applications of the business community at large, e.g. e-mail, web-sites, financial management, teleconferencing, etc.



Topics…




The Unifying Themes of Bird Conservation Implications to Agencies and Organizations

Point: The “unifying themes” reflect a broader and more fundamental shift in the conservation paradigm.

The Conservation Paradigm is shifting…

Science-based advances in conservation theory

Catalysts…

Wildlife conservation (and natural resource management in general) is being pushed from an opportunistic, ideology-based pursuit of site-scale conservation benefits toward a science-based, strategic pursuit of sustainable landscapes.

Landscape ecology

Ecosystem management

Population ecology

Conservation biology

Adaptive resource management

Principles of Ecosystem Management *• Define measurable goals and objectives based on sound

models and assumptions as to how the ecosystem is functioning.

• Manage at the multiple scales at which ecosystems occur.

• Monitor habitat change and population response.

• Refine objectives on the basis of what is learned from monitoring and assessment

• Manage for inter-generational sustainability.

* Adapted from the Ecological Society of America 1996


Technological advances in conservation methodologies


Catalysts…

Remote Sensing

Geospatial Technologies (GIS/GPS)

Relational Database Technologies



Technological advances in conservation methodologies


Fiscal accountability

Catalysts…

Biological credibility/accountability




Point: Sustained pursuit of the unifying themes by a Joint Venture will result in its partner agencies and organizations becoming more interdependent.

Developing Spatially Explicit “Landscapes of Conservation Concern”

North American WaterfowlManagement Plan - 1986

Breeding PopulationObjectives

Wintering PopulationTargets

Foraging Habitat LimitsWintering Duck Populations

Public Lands

Naturally FloodedLands

Private Lands

Reinecke et al. 1988Reinecke and Loesch 1996

62 million Breeding Ducks

Source Population Objectives

ArkansasIllinoisKentucky LouisianaMississippiMissouriTennessee

Totals

902

1914

61

1111

15611

3007201

51 36 13

State 10K 20K 100K

Cerulean WarblerKentucky WarblerSummer Tanager

Yellow-billed CuckooLouisiana WaterthrustEastern Wood-PeweeYellow-throated Vireo

Yellow-throated WarblerGreat Crested Flycatcher

Scarlet TanagerWhite-breasted Nuthatch

Swainson’s WarblerProthonotary Warbler

Northern ParulaHooded Warbler

Wood ThrushAcadian Flycatcher

Blue-gray GnatcatcherRed-eyed Vireo

American Redstart

Swallow-tailed KiteRed-shouldered HawkBroad-winged HawkPileated Woodpecker

Cooper’s Hawk



Point: In an operational sense, the unifying themes will require a measure of internal “reengineering.”

Point: Sustained pursuit of the unifying themes by a Joint Venture will result in its partner agencies and organizations becoming more interdependent.

Reengineering: A rethinking and subsequent realignment of the processes and procedures associated with a business’ core functions, taken with the aim of maintaining competitiveness in a rapidly changing business environment.

Business community drivers…

Conservation community drivers…

• IT “revolution”

• The “global economy”

• IT “revolution”

• Shifting conservation paradigm

Reengineering Demands of a Population-based, Landscape-Oriented Conservation Framework

• Translating range-wide population targets into spatially-explicit habitat objectives.

• Assessing the ability of landscapes to support populations of priority species at prescribed levels.

• Monitoring landscape change and population response at ecoregional scales.

• Integrating biological objectives into program operations and providing decision support to conservation delivery.

• Applying the Information Technologies required of conservation at ecoregional scales.

Viewed from the perspective of the “four unifying themes,” Joint Ventures are being…

Asked?

Expected?

Challenged?

…to move from a Conservation Delivery Business Model and toward a Conservation Enterprise Business Model.

Seth: From the standpoint of fiscal and functional accountability

Scott: From the standpoint of the national and international bird conservation initiatives

Rex: From the standpoint of “applied science” – capacity and capability

Joint Venture Expectations and Challenges

Build the capacity

Towards Landscapes That Sustain Populations Of Priority Species At Prescribed Levels

TexasUS

Forest Service

TennesseeKentucky

Wildlife Mgt Institute

The Nature Conservancy

US Geological Survey

Ducks Unlimited MississippiArkansas

US Fish & Wildlife

Louisiana Oklahoma

The Conservation

Fund

Missouri

Delivery Model

Biological Planning

Implementation Monitoring EvaluationApplied

Research

En

terp

rise

Mo

de

l

Joint Venture (HAPET) Office

ReengineeringRoles

RelationshipsResponsibilities

Partner Organization

(mgt board/techies)

“Other” Partners

(NRCS, Universities)

“Implement” Goals and Objectives

Operating Under a Conservation Business Model

Documents

The Unifying Themes of National/International Bird Conservation Initiatives