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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Bird Sci.
Sec. Bird Conservation and Management
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbirs.2024.1498886
This article is part of the Research Topic Partners in Flight International Science Committee: Migratory Bird Conservation Tools and Applications View all articles

Now More than Ever: The Need for Collaborative Applied Science for Bird Conservation

Provisionally accepted
Sarah Wolken Kendrick Sarah Wolken Kendrick 1*Alaine Camfield Alaine Camfield 2Kenneth V Rosenberg Kenneth V Rosenberg 3John D Alexander John D Alexander 4Wendy E Easton Wendy E Easton 2Tom Will Tom Will 5Rebecca A Keller Rebecca A Keller 6Arvind O Panjabi Arvind O Panjabi 7Robert P Ford Robert P Ford 8
  • 1 United States Fish and Wildlife Service, United States Department of the Interior, Pago Pago, United States
  • 2 Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada
  • 3 Retired, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States
  • 4 Klamath Bird Observatory, Ashland, OR, United States
  • 5 Retired, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, United States Department of the Interior, Pago Pago, United States
  • 6 Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture, Blacksburg, VA, United States
  • 7 Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States
  • 8 Hatchie River Conservancy, Brownsville, TN, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Since 1990, Partners in Flight (PIF) has catalyzed a paradigm shift from exclusive focus on hunted and endangered bird species toward a collaborative, hemispheric, science-based approach for reversing declines of nongame migratory birds. Setting standards for species vulnerability assessment, population size estimation, and landscape-scale conservation design, PIF Science's databases, continental and regional plans, and other decision-support tools are the go-to resources promoting coordinated bird conservation across spatial scales, political jurisdictions, and organizational purviews. Realization that billions of birds continue to be lost from the North American avifauna necessitates a more targeted approach to recovering bird populations and redoubled efforts to protect and restore healthy ecosystems. We present a vision for collaborative applied science aimed at improving alignment among agencies and conservation organizations, filling critical knowledge gaps by integrating social and biological science, giving greater voice to Global South and indigenous knowledge and priorities, and empowering the next generation of conservation leaders.

    Keywords: Applied science, Bird conservation, Partners in Flight, Partnership, collaboration

    Received: 19 Sep 2024; Accepted: 31 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kendrick, Camfield, Rosenberg, Alexander, Easton, Will, Keller, Panjabi and Ford. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sarah Wolken Kendrick, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, United States Department of the Interior, Pago Pago, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.