Funds Found to Conserve Migratory Birds Along the Americas Flyway

Now, companies, institutions and individuals have contributed an additional $18 million in matching funds to support habitat restoration, environmental education, population monitoring and other priority activities in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, and 12 Latin American and Caribbean countries.

"This is brilliant news for neotropical birds and IBAs. The Partnership's great work on migratory species will reap the benefit from these grants," said Dr. Rob Clay, senior conservation manager for BirdLife in the Americas.

Of the world's 10,000 or so species of birds, around 4,500 are found in the Americas with many discovered each year. Most of the America's bird species are found in the tropics, but bird species have adapted to the driest deserts, highest sierras and the freezing weather at the southern tip of South America.

One of the 36 projects is supported with a $90,200 grant, with matching funds of $271,000 from BirdLife partners and Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation-Rio Tinto.

This funding will enable BirdLife International and partner Aves Argentinas to assess the role of Important Bird Areas in Argentina and Chile in conserving neotropical migrants.

A pair of Wilson's phalarope, Phalaropus tricolor, in Utah's Great Salt Lake (Photo courtesy Utah Division of Wildlife Resources)

The project seeks to advance the conservation of four high priority sites in Argentina, Chile and Peru that are linked through shared migratory species of conservation concern to Great Salt Lake, Utah.

Kennecott Utah operates the world's largest open-pit copper mine in Bingham Canyon, and the company is making an effort to counteract environmental degradation, including groundwater contamination in the aquifer downgradient of the Bingham Canyon mine.

The approach of linking the communities at the Important Bird Areas with each other and with the community of Great Salt Lake has proved successful in Canada and Mexico, says Clay.

Great Salt Lake supports between two and five million shorebirds, as many as 1.7 million eared grebes, and hundreds of thousands of waterfowl during spring and fall migration. Because of its importance to migratory birds, the lake was designated a part of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network in 1992. The lake and its marshes provide a resting and staging area for the birds, as well as an abundance of brine shrimp and brine flies that serve as food.

Work by BirdLife partners SalvaNatura in El Salvador and ProNatura in Mexico to identify and manage priority wintering sites will benefit from this round of grant funding. There will be financial support for 40 existing monitoring stations throughout Mexico, Central and South America, and another 10 monitoring stations will be established to fill gaps in the network.

SalvaNatura and ProNatura have received further funding for their work in the pine-oak forests of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and northern El Salvador, which provide critical winter habitat for the Endangered golden-cheeked warbler, Dendroica chrysoparia, and 55 other neotropical migratory species.

ProNatura has received funding for conservation work at the El Ocote and Chimalapas Important Bird Areas, and at the Calakmul, Mapimí and Sierra de la Laguna Biosphere Reserves, which the bird experts say are all of great importance for neotropical migrants.

River of Raptors flies over Mexico's east coast. (Photo courtesy SDSU Biology)

There is further funding for the Veracruz River of Raptors initiative, which seeks to improve protection for the five million raptors of 25 species which migrate via a geographic bottleneck between the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Gulf of Mexico.

The raptors soar over Mexico's east coast 20 miles north of Veracruz, from August through November. On any given day, hundreds or thousands of birds, 20 or 30 across and many deep, pass overhead on their way south for the winter.

Another Important Bird Area that will benefit from support for monitoring, management and public education is Bahia de Asuncion in Paraguay, a site of international importance for migratory shorebirds.

Also a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance, the Bahia de Asuncion is a stopover for southbound migrant waterbirds. Despite being close to the City of Asuncion waterfront, some 260 bird species have been recorded there. During winter, it receives an influx of southern migrants, including numerous species of ducks and grebes and rare raptors such as the Southern crested-caracara, Polyborus plancus.

BirdLife partner Guyra Paraguay's work at Bahia de Asuncion will include developing tools to increase local awareness about the environment, reducing harmful behavior, and involving the community in conservation projects.

Aves & Conservacion, which is the BirdLife partner in Ecuador, will use its grant to strengthen local capacities in research, monitoring and ecotourism at two artificial salt lakes in the Santa Elena Peninsula, establishing site support groups, and building alliances with local universities.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said, "These grants will support important multi-national partnership projects throughout the hemisphere so future generations of people in North, Central and South America can enjoy and appreciate these remarkable birds."

The Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 2000 established the matching grants program to fund projects promoting the conservation of Neotropical migratory birds in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

By law, at least 75 percent of the money goes to projects in Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada, while the remaining 25 percent can go to projects in the United States. A number of the grants will enable the National Audubon Society, which is BirdLife in the United States, to restore habitats and improve the protection of migration corridors within the United States. Audubon also is involved in many of the projects outside U.S. borders.

Based in Cambridge, England, BirdLife International was created to ensure that birds, their habitats and other biodiversity were conserved using the best available information, practices and resources.

The Americas Program is implemented by the BirdLife Americas Partnership of 15 conservationist organizations supported by the BirdLife Americas Division and Cambridge Secretariat. The Americas Division Office located in Quito, Ecuador, receives the support of the Brazil and Caribbean programs that facilitate and coordinate BirdLife partnership activities.

Click here for more information about the projects that are supported by this year's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grants and partner matching funds.

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