ABC Alliances

Leading Collaborative Conservation

ABC is the conservation partnership organization that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts. One of our main strengths is our ability to bring organizations, institutions, government agencies, private companies, and individuals together to achieve the best conservation results.

ABC plays a leadership role in many alliances and partnerships, focusing efforts on priorities and highlighting new challenges. ABC also uses a broad communications network to galvanize public support for bird conservation.

The Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) was formed by ABC and other conservation organizations in an effort to stave off a wave of imminent species' extinctions. This global coalition of more than 60 conservation organizations has identified 595 sites around the world, each of which is the last refuge for one or more endangered or critically endangered species. Conservation efforts are now underway at a number of these sites, including ABC projects to conserve highly threatened birds at 19 AZE sites. More...

The Bird Conservation Alliance (BCA) was formed by ABC in 2004 to connect all non-profit groups in the Americas that share a common concern for bird conservation issues. There are almost 200 members, spanning from Canada to Colombia, and ranging from large international biodiversity organizations to research institutions and local birdwatching groups. ABC helps identify priorities for the Alliance, and disseminates information, builds consensus, and initiates action on the most important issues facing birds. Among other achievements, the BCA has supported efforts to defeat proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act, helped ban songbird trade in the European Union, helped prevent the mortality of birds at communication towers, and gained better protection for the Red Knot and other shorebirds in Delaware Bay. More...

The National Pesticide Reform Coalition was formed by ABC and other organizations concerned with the negative impacts of pesticides on wildlife and people. ABC facilitates the Coalition and plays a leading role in addressing and gaining support for bird issues. The Coalition helps bring pressure on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (the federal authority that licenses pesticides) to cancel the most harmful chemicals, change the use of others so they do not impact birds, and ensure that wildlife is fully considered in agency decisions. More...

The North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) and Partners in Flight are both coalitions of government agencies, private organizations, conservation groups, bird initiatives, and individuals dedicated to bird conservation through cooperative habitat management. Both of these international bird conservation initiatives focus on conserving bird populations. ABC played an important role in the formation of NABCI in 1999, and has helped steer the course that both coalitions have set to achieve ambitious landscape-oriented goals. More on NABCI... More on PIF...

ABC also leads or takes part in many other partnerships, coalitions, and alliances, including a coalition of Cats Indoors! campaign activists that includes veterinarians, scientists, and wildlife rehabilitators working to reduce domestic cat predation on wild birds; the Bird Conservation Funding Coalition, which consists of groups that advocate for increased federal funding for bird conservation; the Wind Power Coordinating Committee and the Communication Tower Working Group, both of which seek to find cooperative answers to the problems of bird kills at tall structures; and the Alliance for Zero Extinction.

International Partnerships

ABC works with a range of non-governmental organizations in Latin America to conserve rare bird species by purchasing key tracts of land to create new bird reserves, and by managing habitat on existing reserves. ABC provides the funding these groups need to purchase and manage the reserves and assists them in identifying priorities and finding solutions. For more information on ABC's international projects and partners, ABC's International Programs section.