Participants of the American Ornithological Society meeting held in Tucson, April 2018 (photo courtesy of AOS).
This past April the Sonoran Joint Venture helped coordinate the annual meeting of the American Ornithological Society, held in Tucson, Arizona. The meeting’s theme Celebrating Connections: Birds Across Borders, was the perfect opportunity for the SJV to co-lead a special symposium on binational collaboration for desert bird conservation.
The Desert Birds in Peril: Research and Conservation Challenges in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States in the Face of Climate Change symposium brought together Mexican and American ornithologists and conservationists working on both sides of the border. It included participants from a diverse array of institutions to share recent research results (see Alberto Macías-Duarte’s article about Aplomado Falcon’s in Chihuahua for an example of one of the excellent presentations). Following the speakers SJV staff, board members, and Science Working Group members led an interactive discussion about future directions for management, research, and conservation in the region. Building on our current knowledge of birds and their habitats, we discussed the greatest challenges and ways to overcome barriers to meeting those challenges, including how to improve international collaboration.
Some of the main issues facing desert bird conservation stem from obstacles in communication, technology, funding, capacity, bureaucracy, and differences in culture. As we know, birds and watersheds do not recognize international boundaries, so it is our job to make sure conservation and management efforts do not halt at the border.
As one of only two binational Migratory Bird Joint Ventures with Mexico (the other being the Rio Grande Joint Venture), the SJV works to overcome those barriers and challenges by facilitating the collaboration and coordination between multiple different stakeholders and supporting the work of our partners.
One way that the SJV supports the work of our partners is through our competitive grants program. The SJV Awards Program is now accepting requests for proposals for the 2018 funding cycle. For more information about how to apply, and a detailed description of this year’s funding priorities, please visit our funding page. The deadline for applications is May 29, 2018.