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Abstract
This paper explores the development of population based objectives for birds. The concept of population based objectives for bird conservation lies at the core of planning in the North American Bird Conservation Initiative. Clear objectives are needed as a basis for partnership, and a basis for program evaluation in an adaptive context. In the case of waterfowl, species for which large demographic datasets provide a rich ground for analysis, there have been successes in formal, model-based scenarios for setting and tracking objectives. The approach used for waterfowl may allow uncontrollable environmental effects to be modeled, improving the evaluation of conservation actions. Setting such objectives for many landbirds seems difficult because data is often sparse and guidelines to avoid arbitrariness are few. A disciplined approach to setting objectives will be needed to achieve broad societal support for landbird conservation, and to provide a basis for the broad-scale conservation practices that most non-endangered landbird species need. We must set objectives for work on birds, but we will not want to expend the effort to set objectives for all birds in all areas - the current approach in identifying species for conservation priority will serve to provide a pool of candidate species for objective-setting.
Parent Publication
Citation
Bart, Jonathan; Koneff, Mark; Wendt, Steve. 2005. Biological objectives for bird populations. In: Ralph, C. John; Rich, Terrell D., editors 2005. Bird Conservation Implementation and Integration in the Americas: Proceedings of the Third International Partners in Flight Conference. 2002 March 20-24; Asilomar, California, Volume 1 Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-191. Albany, CA: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station: p. 52-56
