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Volume 1
Number 7
Our Birds in the Neotropics:
Out of Sight But Not Out of Mind
Revised September 2000
INTRODUCTION
Nearly one half of the bird species that nest in North
America in the summer spend most of their lives in the Caribbean, Central
America, and South America (the Neotropics). For these 338 species,
which include many songbirds, hummingbirds, shorebirds, and raptors, North
American is home only from late spring to early autumn. After raising
their young, these birds return to the tropics for the winter. Neotropical
migratory birds provide the best nature has to offer wildlife watchers
and much more - they consume enormous amounts of insects, help to pollinate
plants and distribute seeds, and are critical to the $29.2 billion spent
on bird-watching and other wildlife watching activities in the United States
each year. Conservation of these species requires protection of their
breeding habitat in North America, of the stopover sites they visit on
the flights north in the spring and south in the winter, and of their winter
homes.
POLICY ISSUES
Conservation in the Neotropics often requires financial
assistance and political and technical support from nongovernmental organizations
and funding organizations in North America. There are a number of federal
programs in the United States that provide this support, but these generally
provide very limited funds. Most are under $5 million per year.
Some of the existing or proposed government, private, and government-private
partnership programs that are intended to help birds and other wildlife
conservation projects that also help birds include:
• Partners In Flight (PIF) is a cooperative effort involving partnerships among federal, state and local government agencies, philanthropic foundations, professional organizations, conservation groups, industry, the scientific community, and private individuals. Currently partners include 16 federal agencies, 40 nongovernment organizations (NGOs), over 60 state and provincial fish and wildlife agencies, numerous universities, and the forest products industry. Partners In Flight was launched in 1990 in response to growing concerns about declines in the populations of many land bird species, and in order to emphasize the conservation of birds not covered by existing conservation initiatives. The initial focus was on species that breed in the Nearctic (North America) and winter in the Neotropics (Central and South America), but the focus has spread to include most landbirds and other species requiring terrestrial habitats. The central premise of PIF has been that the resources of public and private organizations in North and South America must be combined, coordinated, and increased in order to achieve success in conserving bird populations in this hemisphere. All PIF programs are funded and staffed by the partner organizations.
• The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provides funding to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to support Neotropical migratory bird conservation projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is a major source of funding for conservation programs for Neotropical migrants on their wintering grounds. This program, which to date has provided $3 million in federal funds for 78 conservation projects and another $4.5 million in challenge funds (other organizations must provide matching funds) is critical to support the conservation goals of Partners in Flight and other bird conservation organizations.
• The Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act was signed into law by President Clinton on 20 July 2000. Public Law 106-247 was sponsored by Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-MI) and Rep. Don Young (R-AL). The law authorizes (but does not appropriate) $5 million per year for three years (Fiscal Years 2001 -2005) for projects promoting neotropical migratory bird conservation. These funds, if appropriated by Congress, would be used to fund 25% of the cost of such projects. The program will be administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of International Conservation and the North American Wetlands Conservation Council. For Fiscal Year 2001, no funds were appropriated.
• The Office of Migratory Bird Management of the FWS is attempting to enhance the capabilities of the Migratory Bird Management Program with a multi-year initiative beginning in FY2000. The initiative, which is estimated to need funding of approximately $12 million annually, addresses the need to maintain healthy populations of all 778 species of nongame birds in North America. It will fund international conservation efforts including the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) and the North American Colonial Waterbird Plan, expand partnership needs to benefit migratory birds in Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean basin, and will create an international migratory bird liaison to work with partners throughout the western hemisphere. For FY2000, the FWS has requested $2.75 million in new funding for this initiative.
• The Office of International Conservation (OIC) of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service promotes conservation in Central and South America and the Caribbean. The programs sponsored by OIC train resource managers, promote habitat conservation, support environmental education and public awareness programs. All aim to foster conservation partnerships, and improve communication and information exchanges. This very valuable program is currently funded at about $3.6 million per year. No additional funds were appropriated in Fiscal Year 2000 or 2001.
• The Conservation Reserve Program helps to provide habitat for grassland birds by paying farmers to leave parts of their lands fallow. For FY2000, the Department of Agriculture is asking Congress to appropriate $1.6 billion, a decrease of $2 million from 1999 funding levels. As of 1998, about 30 million acres were enrolled in this program, which could ultimately protect 36.4 million acres. However, each year, hundreds of thousands of acres are returned to production when the 10-15 year contracts with the farmers expire.
• The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is an international organization whose members include Canada, Mexico and the United States. The CEC was created under the North American Agreement for Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) to address regional environmental concerns, help prevent potential trade and environmental conflicts and to promote the effective enforcement of environmental law. The Agreement complements the environmental provisions established in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). One of CEC's projects is the development of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative. This project will concentrate on the development of a North American strategy and action plan for the conservation of birds of North America, and the promotion of a North American Network of Important Bird Areas (NA-IBAs). The recommended strategy and plan will include goals, objectives, approaches and actions for bird conservation. The effort to facilitate the development of a NA-IBA network, which began in 1996, will continue to focus on the coordinated identification and nomination of IBA sites, as well as on the implementation of a conservation strategy on a pilot basis in Mexico. CEC has budgeted $200,000 for this project.
• Research conducted by the scientists in the Biological Resources Division (BRD) of the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service is critical to all these efforts. For FY2000, the budget request for BRD (which is operating with funding that is 24% below its 1994 funding level) is $162 million. The Forest Service has requested a total of $37 million in new research funding for FY2000. Priority projects include the study and control of non-native invasive species (a serious threat to all species), expansion of the research program on threatened, endangered and sensitivie species, and a global climate change research program.
WHY ARE THESE BIRDS IMPORTANT?
•The northern summers produce such an abundance of insect life that billions of birds travel thousands of miles from the neotropics to feast. They protect our forests and crops - an average, a pair of adult warblers removes caterpillars from more than a million leaves in the two to three weeks from the time the young hatch until they leave the nest. In the Pacific northwest, for instance, 24 species of Neotropical migrants feed on western spruce budworm and Douglas-fir tussock moth, the two most destructive defoliating insects found in the region. Birds also play an important part in Integrated Pest Management, an agricultural strategy to reduce harmful insects while reducing the use of chemical pesticides. They also help to control disease-carrying insects.
•Fruit-eating birds help distribute seeds to promote forest growth and the birds that drink nectar, such as hummingbirds, help to pollinate plants.
•Expenditures related to bird-watching, bird feeding, and other wildlife watching exceeded $29.2 billion in 1996. More than 57 million Americans enjoy feeding and watching birds. Birding is now the fastest-growing outdoor recreation, with a 150% increase in the past decade.
Declines in bird populations
In recent decades, evidence has mounted that many populations
of Neotropical migratory birds are in decline. Thirteen Neotropical
migratory bird species are listed as endangered or threatened on the U.S.
Endangered Species List, with one other - Mountain Plover - about to be
listed. Of the 124 species on the 1995 List of Migratory Nongame
Birds of Management Concern in the United States, 60 are Neotropical migrants.
Some causes of the declines
Biologists in government agencies, universities, and
private conservation organizations have identified many of the causes of
these declines.
•The primary cause is habitat loss and fragmentation in the nesting, wintering habitats, and.migratory stop-over areas used by birds on their long journeys. An enormous amount of habitat is lost to agriculture and development each year. Even where habitat remains, it is often fragmented into small patches that can not support healthy populations of birds. Fragmented habitat also leaves birds more vulnerable to predators and like raccoons, which eat bird eggs, or to birds that parasitize the nests of other birds by leaving their eggs to be hatched by the host bird.
•Habitat change - air pollution, acid rain, overgrazing, introduced plant species that do not provide suitable habitat, and species that alter habitat (such as white-tailed deer), are among the many causes of habitat change that are contributing to the decline of Neotropical migratory birds
• Competition from non-native species such as European Starlings that take nest sites from hole nesters.
•Overuse of pesticides (many of them banned in North America) results in direct mortality and reduced fertility.
•Some food resources are decreasing due to increased take (such as the horseshoe crabs eggs along the mid-Atlantic coast that are critical to migrating shorebirds).
What can be done to protect bird species
Science, careful planning, and management has helped
to halt and even reverse some of these declines. Identification of the
cause for the decline of Swainson's Hawk - pesticide use in Argentina,
where the birds spend the winter - resulted in the withdrawal of
the most harmful pesticides from the market in 1996. The decline
was first identified by a U.S. Forest Service biologist. An Argentinian
wildlife biologist who had taken several conservation courses funded by
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of International affairs led
the effort in Argentina to verify that the drastic decline that had been
observed in North America actually resulted from the pesticide poisonings
of as many as 20,000 Swainson's Hawks in the alfalfa fields of Argentina
in 1995. She also led the effort to create a public communications campaign
to obtain the support of farmers, who initially saw the Swainson's Hawks
as "belonging to the North Americans" but now recognize that the birds
are part of a hemispheric ecosystem. Funding from the National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided an
outreach program to farmers. As a result of this program, and
the American Bird Conservancy's success in persuading the largest manufacturer
of the pesticide to withdraw it from the Argentinian market, the hawk die-off
in Argentina has ceased.
To ensure that these avian summer residents return year after year, conservation begins at home but it continues all year round, thousands of miles from North America. Or, to put it another way - conservation begins in your own backyard - a backyard that starts at your doorstep and continues across national borders all the way to Costa Rica, Venezuela, the Amazon, and beyond.
References and resources:
Bird Conservation Magazine (published by the American
Bird Conservancy (202, 778-9778 or www.abcbirds.org)
provides excellent
updates on
Neotropical migratory bird conservation programs and on Partners in Flight
Hagan, John M. III and David W. Johnston, editors.
Ecology and Conservation of Neotropical Migrant Landbirds. Smithsonian
Institution
Press: Washington, D.C. 1992.
Lumpkin, Susan, Judith Gradwohl, and Eugene Morton, Editors.
Birds Over Troubled Forests. Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center,
Washington,
D.C., 1991.
Maruca, Mary. The case of the missing hawks: a
drama of one year. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website
(www.fws.gov/r9dia/public/swainpg.1.html).
Rappole, John H. The Ecology of Migrant Birds.
A Neotropical Perspective. Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington,
D.C., 1995.
Terborgh, John. Where Have All the Birds Gone?
Princeton University Press: Princeton, N.J., 1989.
Trapp, John L. Migratory Nongame Birds of Management
in the United States: The 1995 List. Office of Migratory Bird
Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C. 1995.
(Available at www.fws.gov)
For more information, try these websites:
American Bird Conservancy - www.abcbirds.org
Partners in Flight - www.PartnersInFlight.org