Where We Stand
An Adaptive Partnership Facing New Challenges
The NAWMP remains strong because it is adaptive and has a diverse and growing number of partners who share a commitment and vision to sustain waterfowl habitats in North America. The Plan also has some of the most committed supporters for any wildlife conservation effort in the world: waterfowl hunters. Hunters have carried the burden of waterfowl and wetlands conservation for decades and continue to do so today. Unfortunately, daunting challenges continue to erode waterfowl habitat and threaten future sustainability of populations. Such large-scale challenges compel the conservation community to grow and diversify partners and supporters.
The Ask
Expanding Support to Meet the Scale of Habitat Loss
The Plan will always focus on waterfowl and their habitat, but the traditional partnership base is not sufficient to increase the rate and scale of conservation work to reverse large-scale losses of habitat. Ultimately, the Plan must increase the number of supporters, partners and resources to achieve conservation that sustains waterfowl populations in the face of forces degrading the ecosystems that are the birds' life support. Indeed, these same ecosystems provide critical life-support functions for people.
The Opportunity
Communicating the Broader Benefits of Conservation
Waterfowl conservation, in addition to conserving habitat and sustaining populations of these magnificent birds, provides many important benefits to people. These include clean and abundant water, food, biodiversity, places to connect with nature and mitigation of climate change impacts. The NAWMP can grow and diversify its supporters and partners by communicating the many values of its waterfowl habitat work through effective outreach and engagement. Done well, these efforts will ultimately lead to a broader, more diversified base of motivated stewards who value waterfowl habitat and the many benefits that improve quality of life in their communities. That is the opportunity. The NAWMP partnership should be proud of its successes, appropriately concerned about existing threats and excited about opportunities to adapt, grow and rise to the challenge to sustain North America's waterfowl and the attendant benefits that, collectively, are valued by people.
