The road towards the National Bird Conservation Strategy: species that reconnect us with the biodiversity of ecosystems

A few weeks ago, our Conservation Director Tomás Altamirano addressed the scope of the National Bird Conservation Strategy of Chile (ENCA) at a transdisciplinary knowledge session organized by our team. He was also recently interviewed by the Volvámonos Verdes podcast, where he discussed this initiative in line with the role of birds to mobilize and create awareness about the socio-ecological crisis.

It was in 2020 when the MMA called for the creation of this intersectoral strategy as part of the actions of the Coastal Wetlands GEF Project to improve the ecological and conservation status of birds and their ecosystems in Chile. The ENCA has been a significant effort in terms of participant diversity and scope, with objectives aimed at 2030, addressing the challenges of virtuality during its development amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thus, the ENCA was developed with the participation of more than 2,200 people, who became involved through the core group that supported the process, the organization of participatory workshops, public consultations, and surveys. The objective was to prepare a set of actions considering 20 threats facing Chile’s native bird species as conservation targets—focal biodiversity values—and the birds associated with various ecosystems as sub-targets.

Referring to the reasons and relevance of a strategy in this regard, Altamirano reflected on the value of these species as “indicators of biodiversity.” He also emphasized that they can be monitored on a national scale, where there is also citizen motivation to record sightings through apps like eBird (which today has around 500 million observations worldwide). On the other hand, he also highlighted the potential of birds to activate local economies and sustainable activities through birdwatching tourism.

Charismatic Birds and Bearers of Knowledge

“Birds are charismatic species. The Andean condor, for example, has great biocultural value in Latin America, present throughout history on the coats of arms of six South American countries, and associated with many rituals,” expressed our conservation director, who also shared that birds are very present in popular sayings, with at least 89 associated with these species, mentioning birds like the perdiz, the chuncho, or the diuca.

“There’s wisdom, insights and even, in the Mapuche worldview, weather forecasts attributed to the movements of birds,” says the naturalist, in line with an integrated vision of the biocultural fabric that makes us who we are as nature, inviting us to “think about birds and their potential to conserve ecosystems and watersheds.”

Along with their ecosystemic and biocultural value, Altamirano explained that birds are the most numerous terrestrial vertebrates in Chile and the world, with 80 globally threatened species, including the critically endangered Arica hummingbird and the Juan Fernández hummingbird. On the other hand, Chile has high global importance in relation to endemism (e.g., 41% of the birds in the temperate forests of South America are endemic to Chile and Argentina) and habitats globally recognized for their importance in bird conservation (e.g., seabirds). At the same time, “birds are crucial in ecosystem processes and for human well-being, being responsible, for example, of the dispersal of almost 70% of woody vegetation seeds in the temperate forests of South America,” he assured.

To elaborate, Altamirano explained that although administrative boundaries do not always define the relevance of biodiversity, Chile presents a virtuous correlation between endemism and the habitats mentioned, being the second country with the largest number of threatened seabird species in the world. At the same time, “birds like the chucao and the cachaña, for example, only inhabit the temperate forests of the southern cone of the continent, which is primarily in Chile.”

Action Areas and Guidelines Towards 2030

The strategy, formalized in 2022, included action groups focused on research and monitoring; creating and tightening partnerships; strengthening public policies; promoting compliance with regulations; innovating in good practices; seeking funding; developing management tools; and engaging with communities. These eight areas encompass 58 actions to address the threats to the country’s birds, such as invasive species, bycatch, pollution, wildfires, and climate change.

Today, explains the researcher, efforts are underway to scale national strategies to a Latin American level, based on work carried out in Chile and Colombia, where a similar initiative has also been implemented. An important point, he added, is the value of the information provided by communities and, at the same time, planning through methodologies like the open conservation standards.

Altamirano emphasized the importance of the places where birds live as key areas for biodiversity in general. One crucial aspect, Altamirano recapped, was creating a network of intersectoral work and collaboration, where the MMA as a facilitator brought together various stakeholders to develop action plans on specific species and threats, such as shorebirds; a national bird monitoring plan; studies on birds and human well-being; guides for good practices; a market analysis of birdwatching tourism in Chile; as well as technical reports related to the risk of birds interacting with wind turbines, affecting species like the Andean flamingo or the Magellanic plover, among many other results achieved by the Strategy to date.

In summary, the Strategy today is an active intersectoral collaboration network, involving 25 institutions that support its implementation, with the aim of ensuring that native birds have viable populations and well-conserved habitats by 2030, through an ecosystemic approach that allows us to see “birds as the spearhead to reconnect people with nature, with cooperation being key.”

Tomás Altamirano is the Conservation Director at Fundación Mar Adentro. His work focuses on the scientific-political interface, addressing the challenges of biodiversity conservation and sustainable cohabitation. At FMA, from a transdisciplinary approach, he leads strategic planning in conservation, scientific work in Pehuén Forest, research in mountain ecosystems, as well as national and international strategic partnerships. He was the Coordinator of the National Bird Conservation Strategy 2021-2030 led by the MMA. He studied forestry sciences and obtained his PhD and postdoctoral fellowship in bird ecology and conservation. His work has centered on the interaction between applied ecology research and conservation management/planning.

References:

1 Among other topics, he also reviewed his views as a naturalist on mountain ecosystems, volcanoes, nest networks, and monitoring.

2 Birds that spend most of their lives at sea, far from the coast.

3 Such as Safe Sky for bird refuges in energy areas, such as green hydrogen export zones.

4 Audubon study which revealed that a birdwatcher spends significantly more than someone engaged in other types of tourism.