Sec. 2. Findings and purpose
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Congress finds that— migratory birds are of great ecological and economic value to the Nation, contributing to biological diversity, advancing the well-being of human communities through pollination, seed dispersal, and other ecosystem services, and bringing tremendous enjoyment to the tens of millions of Americans who study, watch, feed, or hunt these birds; sustainable populations of migratory birds depend on the conservation, protection, restoration, and enhancement of terrestrial, wetland, marine, and other aquatic habitats throughout their ranges in the United States, as well as the rest of North America, the Caribbean, and Central and South America; birds are good indicators of environmental health and provide early warning of the impacts of environmental change, helping to yield the most out of every dollar invested in conservation; human and environmental stressors are causing the decline of populations of many migratory bird species, many of them once common, and climate change will exacerbate the impacts of these stressors on migratory bird populations; the coordination of Federal, State, tribal, and local government natural resource conservation efforts and the formation of partnerships that include a diversity of nongovernmental conservation organizations, private landowners, and other relevant stakeholders is necessary to accomplish the conservation of migratory bird populations, their habitats, and the ecosystem functions they rely on; hunters, through their purchase of Federal migratory bird hunting stamps and State hunting licenses, have long supported the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats in the United States through the various State and Federal programs that are supported by the fees charged for such purchases; the Department of the Interior, through the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, is authorized under a number of broad statutes to undertake many activities with partners to conserve natural resources, including migratory birds and their habitat; through these authorities, the Service has created and supported a number of joint ventures with diverse partners to help protect, manage, enhance, and restore migratory bird habitat throughout much of the United States and to conserve migratory bird species; the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, adopted by the United States and Canada in 1986, with Mexico joining as a signatory in 1994, was the first truly landscape-level approach to conserving migratory game birds and the wetland habitats on which they depend, and became the foundation for the voluntary formation of Joint Ventures; since the adoption of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, joint ventures have expanded their application to all native birds and other wildlife species that depend on wetlands and associated upland habitats, resulting in significant conservation benefits over the last 20 years;
States possess broad trustee and management authority over fish and wildlife resources within their borders, and have utilized their authorities to undertake conservation programs to conserve resident and migratory birds and their habitats; consistent with applicable Federal and State laws, the Federal Government and the States each have management responsibilities affecting fish and wildlife resources, and should work cooperatively in fulfilling these responsibilities; other domestic and international conservation projects authorized under the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act ( 16 U.S.C. 6101 et seq. ) and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act ( 16 U.S.C. 4401 et seq. ), and additional bird conservation projects authorized under other Federal authorities, can expand and increase the effectiveness of the joint ventures in protecting and enhancing migratory bird habitats throughout the different ranges of species native to the United States; and the voluntary partnerships fostered by these joint ventures have served as innovative models for cooperative and effective landscape conservation, with far-reaching benefits to other fish and wildlife populations, and similar joint ventures should be authorized specifically to reinforce the importance and multiple benefits of these models to encourage adaptive resource management and the implementation of flexible conservation strategies in the 21st century.
The purpose of this Act is to establish a program administered by the Director, in coordination with other Federal agencies with management authority over fish and wildlife resources and the States, to develop, implement, and support innovative, voluntary, cooperative, and effective conservation strategies and conservation actions to— promote, primarily, sustainable populations of migratory birds, and, secondarily, the fish and wildlife species associated with their habitats; encourage stakeholder and government partnerships consistent with the goals of protecting, improving, and restoring habitat; establish, implement, and improve science-based migratory bird conservation plans and promote and facilitate broader landscape-level conservation of fish and wildlife habitat; and coordinate related conservation activities of the Service and other Federal agencies to maximize the efficient and effective use of funds appropriated or otherwise made available to support projects and activities to enhance bird populations and other populations of fish and wildlife and their habitats.
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