Abstract :
Ducks Unlimitedʹs mission demands a landscape approach to habitat conservation to accommodate the life-cycle needs of North Americaʹs migratory birds. The loss and degradation of habitat is the major problem facing migratory bird management in North America. Habitat conservation through restoration, development, enhancement, and management is the cornerstone of Ducks Unlimitedʹs foundation. Ducks Unlimited (DU) embraces the principles of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan and plays a pivotal role in its implementation in Canada, the US and Mexico. The NAWMP focuses on landscape-level changes that provide multiple benefits for soil, water and wildlife conservation. DUʹs Continental Conservation Plan is a corporate road-map to landscape habitat conservation programs through the 20th century. Prairie CARE is a broad-based incentive program designed to encourage private landowners to adopt soil and water conservation practices that benefit wildlife. DUʹs Habitat USA program focuses on the creation, restoration and enhancement of wetland complexes and associated upland nesting habitat for breeding waterfowl. Valley CARE has provided over 90 000 acres of valuable wintering habitat for over 100 species of migratory birds in the ricefields of Californiaʹs Central Valley. The coastal marshes of Mexico provide critical feeding, migration and wintering habitat for many of North Americaʹs waterfowl yet the potential exists for significant wetland alteration and destruction. The inventory, mapping and protection of key wetland ecosystems in Mexico is an international priority and one in which Ducks Unlimited de Mexico has been instrumental. Other DU programs also provide critical staging, molting, wintering and breeding habitat for waterfowl, songbirds, migratory shore and wading birds. Ducks Unlimited supports reauthorization of the Conservation Reserve Program, one of this nationʹs best landscape-level habitat conservation programs.
