White Space
Park biologist Ingrid Arias guides NPS resource managers through Cerro San Gil Reserve in Guatemala. The small NPS contingent visited parks in Central America in late 1999 and began coordinating the Park Flight Program, an international training and technical support initiative for the conservation of shared migratory species and their habitats.
scott_hall@nps.gov
International Affairs Specialist, Office of International Affairs, Washington, D.C.
gary_johnston@nps.gov
Washington Liaison, Biological Resource Management Division; Natural Resource Program Center, Washington, D.C.
Back to Chapter 7: Science Outreach
Glen Canyon benefits from local science education program
by Joele B. Doty
Students help meet the research needs of the present and future
by Paul E. Super
Bear-proofing garbage cans near Great Smoky Mountains National Park
by Kim Delozier
Parallels in ecological preservation challenges in U.S. and Canadian national parks
by John G. Dennis
Growing and greening the economy of Vietnam: A role for the National Park Service?
by Mike Soukup
by Scott Hall and Gary Johnston
In 1999 the National Park Service began to implement a new initiative to assist Central American nations in the conservation of shared species of Neotropical migratory birds. Called the Park Flight Program, the initiative is a partnership among the National Park Service, American Airlines, and the National Park Foundation. The program will support Central American park managers through technical assistance and training, enabling them to better protect important habitat for shared migratory species. The long-term goal of the Park Flight Program is to create a framework for the "co-management" of shared migratory species facing a precarious future. This goal will be carried out through the formation of sister park relationships and other forms of NPS technical support.
"The long-term goal ... is to create a framework for the 'co-management' of shared migratory species."
The Park Flight Program has its origin in a series of 1997 and 1998 contacts between Michael Soukup, associate director for Natural Resource Stewardship and Science, and several Central American environmental and conservation officials, who developed the concept for a joint cooperative program to protect shared migratory species and their habitats through technical exchange and cooperation. To accomplish this goal, the program needed a small quantity of project start-up funds and a few airline tickets. The tickets would be used for travel by either NPS or Central American park personnel for training, technical assistance activities, or the exchange of information on shared migratory species. American Airlines has stepped forward to provide more than $330,000 in program funds and 45 round-trip airline tickets, facilitated through the efforts of the National Park Foundation.
In December 1999 the National Park Service sent a five-person team to Central America to define the scope of the Park Flight Program and to assess the interests and needs of Central American park managers and wildlife biologists. The NPS team's trip report identifies both short-term and long-term program activities; a copy is available from the authors. The National Park Service hopes to select the migratory species and U.S. and Central American parks that will be the focus of technical assistance and support efforts and to start funding exchange projects in 2000.
This material is from Natural Resource Year in Review--1999; published by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, August 2000 (publication D-1406)
/YearInReview/yir/yir99/pages/07outreach/06hall_neotropical.htm
Last Updated: 09/26/00
Webmaster: jeff_selleck@nps.gov