At ABC, we work together for birds. We envision a future in which an abundant dawn chorus renews us. Where we find freedom in the arc of a gull's flight. Where the iridescence of a hummingbird's wing stops us in our tracks, filling us with wonder. Where the cooing mourning dove on our windowsill brings us comfort, the voice of a dear friend. Where clean water and air and soil are the norm and not the exception. Where restoration is more common than degradation. Where abundant food and safe shelter help both birds and people to thrive. Where we are comforted in times of grief by tending our connections to nature and our connections to each other. Where we celebrate biological and cultural diversity, grounded in the understanding that we need each other to survive.
We celebrate the diversity of birds and the diversity of all who cherish and conserve birds. We are inspired by our many partners and our dedicated staff. At ABC, we intend to move forward with respect and kindness, to grow and learn together with our community.
Effectively protecting wild birds throughout the Americas requires the creativity, dedication, and participation of far more people. However, conservation and birding are both burdened by histories of exclusion and extraction. Intersections between the needs of people and birds often remain invisible. And, many people do not pay attention to birds or know about bird conservation careers. Our theory of change posits that if we illuminate connections between human wellbeing and bird conservation, we will be able to attract and retain a larger number and greater diversity of partners, supporters, and staff.
Together for Birds involves three interconnected areas of work: Belonging and Balance, Ethical Conservation, and Birds for All.
What else should we invest in to ensure that we support each other and flourish together? To share your ideas and stories, or for more information, please contact Naamal De Silva, Vice President for Together for Birds, at: ndesilva@abcbirds.org
Belonging and Balance is mostly internal work focused on our staff, who represent the heart of our organization. As we grow, we continue to consider new ways of investing in our staff, their ideas, and our culture. We learn collectively, create more opportunities for professional growth, address existing inequities, and work toward creating an ever-greater sense of belonging. As a remote workplace, maintaining a cohesive culture and sense of belonging can be challenging. A number of internal groups work on culture, belonging. Our internal council on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion has consistently included about a third of staff. Team ABC focuses on cross-departmental collaboration. We have a native-Spanish speakers' group and interest in forming additional informal groups. Some work on inclusion and fairness are led by our human resources team, which includes a compensation analyst and ongoing studies into pay equity and benefits. An optional initiative called Cultivating Balance helps create a network of support for staff in creating more balance in their personal and professional lives. Conservation Spotlights during our all staff meetings (Flock Talks) feature the career paths and specific work of individual staffs.
For over thirty years, ABC has worked for birds through a vast array of partnerships with people from communities, governments, Tribes, and nonprofits throughout the Americas. We are working to nurture these long-term partnerships and at the same time seek new partnerships that help to bring access to nature, conservation careers, and birding more people. We seek to carry out our conservation work in increasingly ethical ways, investing in where the needs of birds and people intersect. Recognizing that whatever we work on requires substantive input from the people most impacted by our projects, we advocate for creating change collectively.
One of the primary ways in which we do this is through our Conservation and Justice Fellowship Program, which we created in 2022 and expanded in 2024. Our paid, part-time fellows examine specific ways in which we can expand our existing bird conservation work to more explicitly benefit people, including people who have historically been excluded from conservation. Each fellow works on a unique project created by an ABC host. Some projects examine the uneven distribution of the negative impacts of environmental change, create partnerships across countries and languages for work on migratory birds, uphold the perspectives and rights of Indigenous people in managing their own lands for bird conservation, and provide children and the public with greater access to nature and to environmental education, and advocate for policy change.
Watch “Future of Conservation: Expanding Opportunities Through Fellowships,” a 2024 webinar from ABC and George Washington University's Planet Forward »
Wonder is at the heart of why we work for birds at ABC. We would love to learn more about your favorite stories of birds, their homes, and your relationships with them. We wrote about the importance of these stories for one of our partners, Project Learning Tree.
We must inspire future generations to enjoy and protect birds. We are working to do that by collaborating with fellows and partners to create culturally relevant, multi-sensory, multi-lingual materials and approaches. We hope to engage the next generation of birders and bird conservationists through investments in school-based environmental education, mentoring, and widening pathways into birding and bird conservation careers.
Future of Conservation Webinar: Fellowships, via Planet Forward, February 9, 2024 (features 2022 Fellows Katia and Harrison and ABC board member Carl Safina): https://youtu.be/MMUqCbyNmkI?si=YK2pMmKU-GANb-jr
Dawn Songs: a book of poetry by Jamie Reaser and Drew Lanham with proceeds supporting the fellowships: https://abcbirds.org/news/dawn-songs-abc-fellowship-program/
2022 Fellowship Story: Claudia Santiago (the main product that Claudia worked on was a toolkit for conservation practitioners): https://abcbirds.org/claudia-santiago-story/
2022 Fellowship Stories: Noah Gomes:
2022 Fellowship Stories: Harrison Watson (policy and advocacy oriented fellowship)
Together for Birds Seed Grants, launched in 2023, announcement May 23, 2024: https://abcbirds.org/seed-grant-recipients-2023/
Together for Birds Activity Collection with Project Learning Tree (2023): https://www.plt.org/together-for-birds-activity-collection/
Inclusive Birding webinar series with Birdability, 2021-2022 (one of the speakers was Leticia Soares) : https://abcbirds.org/blog/birdability-webinars/
Bird Stories. We wrote about the importance of these stories for one of our partners, Project Learning Tree: https://www.plt.org/news/migratory-bird-day-reflections-on-home/
(Banner photo: ABC staff and partners from our Latin American bird reserve network, April 2019. Photo by Daniel J. Lebbin.)
