Local opinion: U of A experts on saving migratory species

The animated film “Migration,” soon streaming in a living room near you, follows the adventures of a group of mallard ducks flying from their home in Maine to Jamaica. It’s the first time the feathered family has made the trip, as its patriarch sees travel as a dangerous thing. He’s right. We’ve reviewed the science on the more than 900 species that migrate across North America. The majority are in decline. Most of these species must migrate to stay alive. But they do share some things with their movie counterparts: They are threatened by human activity, and they need help.

Cities present a host of dangers to migratory birds, including powerlines, glass buildings, pollution, and even our pet cats. There are certainly legislative remedies to contain these threats, but those remedies would need to be consistent, and consistently enforced across municipal, state and national borders.

Our research group, EMIGRA, investigates how human governance affects migratory species in North America. One of the complexities of this work is that migratory species may require conservation efforts in one spot yet benefit humans economically in a distant place.

Take the monarch butterfly. While other migratory species serve agriculture through pest control or pollination, or act as a food source for humans, the monarch’s value to us lies in its cultural importance throughout its range, whether it’s a longstanding traditional heritage or simply the recreational opportunities associated with viewing the butterflies. Our colleagues calculated that value at between $4.8 and $6.6 billion. The monarch’s numbers are declining, due to factors such as farming practices and climate change. Efforts to conserve the monarch have been particularly costly for Indigenous communities in Mexico based near the oyamel forests where the butterflies spend the winter.

Many of these areas have been declared biosphere reserves, which makes them off-limits for traditional practices like hunting and logging. With those sources of support gone, some residents have gone to work in the avocado farms, which are eating up forests to meet U.S. demand for the fruits. This deforestation adjacent to the winter home of the monarchs is causing temperatures to rise in the higher-elevation oyamel forest, threatening trees and the monarchs who depend upon them.

What if there were a way to compensate those Indigenous communities to discourage the sprawling avocado farms? It gets complicated because the benefits conferred by the monarchs are enjoyed in three different countries.

Governments do know how to do this. EMIGRA has done intensive study on one of the mallard’s cousins, the northern pintail duck. It also makes its home throughout the countries of North America and provides a source of protein to hunters throughout their range. The U.S. government attaches a tax to firearms and ammunition used by hunters in the form of Duck Stamps, which have been issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since 1934. Proceeds from the stamp fund conservation of pintail duck habitats in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Today we know that it is no longer enough to limit hunting, we must preserve habitat. Often that will mean that one human community must do the conservation work which benefits another. That simply will not happen without equitable compensation.

Our research shows that people in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. are willing to contribute financially to preserving the pintail duck habitat in both their own and other countries.

Multidisciplinary teams have done the painstaking work of calculating the cost one community must bear to support the benefit of another. More than 900 species that enrich our lives and have an inherent right to exist are depending upon us acting on that knowledge.