Francisco ‘Paco’ Abarca is the International and Borderland Program Manager with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Over the last 28 years, he has served as an active member and key advisor of various working groups including several endangered species recovery teams, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ International Relations Committee, the Arizona-Mexico Commission, the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation, the Science Office of the American Embassy in Mexico City, and the Canada/Mexico/U.S. Trilateral Committee for Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation and Management. Francisco served as technical advisor during the Obama administration for the Good Neighbor Environmental Program whose mission is to advise the President and Congress of the United States on environmental issues along the U.S. border with Mexico.
Francisco has been a longtime supporter of the SJV Mission by implementing bird conservation projects and participating at the Science Working Group and on the Management Board. He believes that migratory birds and wetlands connect countries. Over the last 22 years he has lead an effort in wetland training and capacity building in Mexico with the assistance of wetland scientists and managers from the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In 2006, he received the U.S. National Wetlands Award presented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Federal Highway Administration and the Environmental Law Institute. The same year, he also received the National Wetlands Conservation Award from the Government of Mexico, Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources.
Francisco received his B.A. from the National Autonomous University in Mexico City and his M.S from Arizona State University in 1989. His professional interests include recovery of endangered species, biological diversity, bird and wetland ecology and conservation, and international wildlife policies and regulations. Francisco’s favorite bird habitats are wetlands, and he enjoys working with waterfowl, waterbirds, and shorebirds in general. However, Francisco says “If I have to pick my favorite species, they would be Northern Pintails, Tricolored Herons, and Semipalmated Plovers.”