Joint Ventures

Joint ventures (JVs) were initially formed to implement the North American Waterfowl Management Plan in the late 1980's. They are regional-scale, self-directed partnerships involving federal, state, and local government agencies, corporations, tribes, individuals, and a wide range of non-governmental organizations which integrate the objectives of national and international bird initiatives with other conservation efforts and local land use priorities. Joint ventures provide a logical and coordinated approach to conservation planning, implementation, and evaluation processes that benefit birds and other species. JV success is based on cooperative development of science-based goals and strategies, and a non-regulatory approach to conservation delivery.

Integrated bird conservation, sometimes referred to as "all-bird" conservation, is an approach that incorporates the species and habitat conservation priorities of several bird initiatives (including the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, Partners in Flight, the U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan, and the North American Waterbird Conservation Plan) into spatially-explicit landscape designs at regional and local scales. Fundamental to this approach is a science-based process of conservation planning and evaluation that addresses the needs of all priority bird species for a given region, includes participation by a broad array of stakeholders, and provides efficient and effective strategies for action. Joint ventures have long recognized that the conservation benefits of their projects extend beyond waterfowl to a host of wetland-associated species and now have broadened their scope and partnerships to advance integrated bird conservation in all habitats. These initiatives and other conservation interests now acknowledge that joint ventures serve as models of partner-based conservation and advocate using joint ventures as delivery agents for bird habitat conservation in all areas of the U.S.

Joint ventures are unique in their ability to provide conservation partners with useful products of strategic conservation planning, i.e., population goals and quantitative habitat objectives at regional and local scales, science-based strategies for achieving desired results, conservation alternatives prioritized by their of likelihood of success, and evaluation measures to gauge results and improve performance. The collaborative approach used by joint ventures to prepare and implement their conservation plans fosters consensus among individual agencies and organizations on a comprehensive landscape design and allows individual partners to integrate their programs and objectives into a broader effort. Furthermore, by harmonizing the efforts of individual partners, joint ventures promote efficient use of available resources and secure collective conservation impacts that exceed the sum of what partners could accomplish alone.