We conserve the areas where our work is needed most

If you were on a mission to conserve waterfowl across North America, where would you begin? It’s a daunting task. These birds cross several borders, from as far north as Alaska south to the South American rainforest. That’s why, in 1994, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Ducks Unlimited Inc. in the U.S. and Ducks Unlimited de México developed an International Conservation Plan to guide our conservation work in 22 planning regions.

Based on decades of research, we know that we will not achieve our vision unless we are successful in our priority landscapes. We determine these priorities based on 1) their importance to waterfowl, 2) the level of threat to waterfowl habitat and 3) available conservation opportunities. We also look at the landscape condition to determine the type of impact we can have to achieve our conservation goals.

Most of our current conservation work is on-the-ground. But we can’t conserve enough area through direct habitat work alone. Waterfowl depend on extensive habitats that are rapidly changing. To keep pace with these changes, we are increasing our investment in policy work that can affect habitat at  large landscape scales.

Canada contains the two most important waterfowl conservation regions in North America: the Prairie Pothole Region and the Western Boreal Forest.  These regions support an average of approximately 70 per cent of North America’s breeding ducks. They, along with the five other priority regions in Canada, also support ducks, geese and swans at other times of year.