Assessment of BirdsCaribbean’s Capacity Building Initiatives and identification of Priorities for the Future

Facilitated by Adrianne Tossas, BirdsCaribbean; Lisa Sorenson, BirdsCaribbean; James Goetz, Vermont Center for Ecostudies; Ellie Devenish-Nelson, University of Edinburgh; and Howard Nelson, Fauna and Flora International & University of Cambridge. 

Emails: adrianne.tossas@birdscaribbean.org, lisa.sorenson@birdscaribbean.org, jgoetz@vtecostudies.org, ellie.devenish@ed.ac.uk, Howard.Nelson@fauna-flora.org

Purpose: In this workshop we aim to assess the impact of BirdsCaribbean’s programs on the capacity development of individuals and partner organizations from our community. We plan to collect feedback about the benefits received, as well as identify the gaps and further needs to help us improve future initiatives.

Overview: Capacity building constitutes an integral part of BirdsCaribbean’s mission since its founding in 1988. This has been achieved by providing skills-building training opportunities, tools, and funding, and engaging our community in international working groups that lead research and conservation projects throughout the region. Based on past priority setting workshops (Walker, 1998; Wege, 1999), direct efforts have been made over the past 20+ years to: 1) increase awareness and change local cultures to ones that value birds and nature and will become involved in their conservation, and 2) building local capacity for monitoring bird populations, expanded research, and on-the-ground conservation actions. Examples include the West Indian Whistling-Duck and Wetlands Conservation Project, Caribbean Endemic Bird Festival (CEBF), World Migratory Bird Day, Caribbean Waterbird Census, BirdSleuth Caribbean, Caribbean Seabird Conservation, Caribbean Birding Trail, and the Caribbean Landbird Monitoring programs (which include PROALAS monitoring, Motus, and bird banding). 

These programs have provided hands-on training workshops and mentorship, as well as produced and distributed free materials and resources (e.g., monitoring manuals, curricula, posters, bird ID cards, etc.) in multiple languages to partners and collaborators. In addition, BirdsCaribbean has financially supported numerous education, monitoring, research, and on-the-ground conservation projects, including through grants from the Betty Petersen Conservation Fund, David S. Lee Fund for the Conservation of Caribbean Birds, and James A. Kushlan Research and Conservation Fund. Finally, the society’s Journal of Caribbean Ornithology provides a peer-reviewed outlet for Caribbean nationals to publish in Spanish, French or English—inexperienced authors are mentored to ensure they build capacity in publishing their work.

Objectives: To determine:

• How the resources, materials, training opportunities, equipment, and/or grants provided by BirdsCaribbean are helping our members or partner organizations to carry out local initiatives, pursue a career in conservation, solve problems, and/or achieve their work in a sustainable manner

• What are the priority conservation capacity challenges threatening the avifauna on their islands

• What are the barriers and most pressing issues limiting the capacity of our members and collaborators to work in conservation and/or achieving their goals to protect Caribbean birds and their habitats

• What are the priority capacity training, tools, and resources that BirdsCaribbean or other partner organizations could provide to support their work

Session Structure: Prior to the conference, participants will fill out a survey to assess: 1) the effectiveness of BirdsCaribbean’s programs to build and maintain conservation capacity and achieve local conservation goals, 2) current capacity gaps and barriers to conserving birds and pursuing a career in conservation, and 3) what additional training, resources, etc. are needed to fill these capacity gaps and overcome these barriers.

At the conference, participants will use the situation model to develop a coherent, effective theory of change (a.k.a. results tree) that identifies necessary intermediate results (and their dependencies), as well as specific actions and SMART indicators to measure impact of the actions. During the in-person conference session, three or more facilitators will guide participants through a review and validation of the problem tree, and a hands-on activity to develop the results-tree (as far as possible with specific actions, indicators, and implementers identified and confirmed).

We intend to share the lessons learned on the BC website, and a publication on the Journal of Caribbean Ornithology.

References:

Walker, M. 1998. Avian conservation priorities for the Caribbean region and priorities for the society of Caribbean ornithology. El Pitirre 11:76-79.

Wege, D. 1999. BirdLife International report: Threatened birds of the Caribbean: conservation priorities for the region and for the society of Caribbean ornithology. El Pitirre 12:72-73.