The Bird Partnership Workshop, held in January 2015, brought together key personnel from the bird conservation community to discuss needs for promoting more effective coordination, collaboration, and integration of priorities and activities among three networks—Migratory Bird Joint Ventures (JVs), the four major Bird Conservation Plan Partnerships (BCPPs) and the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI). The four major BCPPS were Partners In Flight (PIF), the U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan (USSCP), the Waterbird Plan, and the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP). The goal of the workshop was to improve and institutionalize long-term coordination and communication among these three networks.

Workshop Objectives

  1. Priority Needs & Capacity Gaps — Identify the greatest needs and capacity gaps limiting more effective bird conservation and develop immediate and long term strategies for working together to address these needs.
  2. Sharing of Tools & Resources — Share and promote tools, resources, and other products or efforts with potential universal appeal and identify opportunities for broadening their use and applicability.
  3. Responsibilities & Expectations — Clarify roles and expectations of JVs, BCPPs, and NABCI and identify opportunities to improve integration, avoid redundancy, enhance communication and collaboration, and better achieve bird conservation outcomes.
  4. Enhancing Commitments — Identify efficient options for enhancing levels of commitment and accountability among JVs, BCPPs, and NABCI in order to address gaps and capacity needs and achieve national-scale bird conservation achievement.

The Workshop Outcomes Oversight Team (“WOOT”) – tasked with moving forward on steps and actions identified at the workshop –  produced a Bird Partnership Workshop Report and recently released a one-year progress report highlighting the accomplishments towards workshop goals.