Beyond North America

Preserving a natural diversity of birds is a major challenge in the face of human-induced environmental change. Recent years have seen a dramatic change in the quality and quantity of bird habitat in the Western Hemisphere. While NABCI officially includes Mexico, Canada, and the US, it encourages linkages with other nations and programs in the Western Hemisphere. NABCI can facilitate international cooperation based on shared species, habitat types, ecosystems, and management concerns and will include linkages among sites important for annual cycles and peoples with shared concerns even when this extends beyond the boundaries of North America. Currently, there are two important conservation programs operating at a hemispheric scale, the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network and the Western Hemisphere Migratory Species Initiative.