As I write this, it has been virtually a yr since I used to be chosen as the primary lady CEO within the Nationwide Audubon Society’s 117-year historical past. I’ve been reflecting on the yr’s highlights and the way our work encompasses completely different sides of the identical core crucial to guard birds and the locations they want. We have to work the place birds are all through their lives and work in ways in which assist the individuals who reside alongside them. We have to deal with present threats and those who birds and folks will face because the local weather continues to vary.
Over the previous 12 months, our work in the USA and all through the hemisphere took large leaps ahead in conservation, coverage, and science. Among the many most notable, the Bezos Earth Fund invested $12 million in Conserva Aves, a partnership fashioned by the Audubon Americas program. Conserva Aves helps native communities’ and Indigenous peoples’ efforts to ascertain and strengthen protections for shut to five million acres of important hen habitat in 9 Latin American international locations.
Audubon additionally helped construct momentum for the Inflation Discount Act—essentially the most vital local weather laws ever to grow to be legislation in the USA. The act, which requires $60 billion in clear power infrastructure, $3 billion for environmental justice initiatives, and billions extra invested to speed up local weather motion, is the results of months of advocacy and training by Audubon workers, chapters, and membership. Our efforts harnessed near 70,000 actions in assist of passing the invoice.
This yr additionally noticed the launch of certainly one of Audubon’s biggest science and expertise achievements. I’m stuffed with awe and immense pleasure for the brand new Chook Migration Explorer, a device that helps hen lovers and scientists alike perceive the total life cycle of birds, how they migrate every spring and fall, and what threats they encounter at each stage of their journey. Years within the making, this marks a pivotal second for hen conservation and the partnerships that made it occur. Thus far, greater than 150,000 individuals have logged onto the Chook Migration Explorer to study extra about birds, the challenges they face, and the magic of migration.
So what’s arising subsequent? For the primary few months of 2023, we shall be crafting our subsequent strategic plan, constructing on our accomplishments, and honing the place we see alternatives for profitable conservation. I shall be sharing extra about our imaginative and prescient and technique in 2023.
Audubon’s work doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It occurs as a result of we, collectively, need to make the world a greater place for birds and folks. I need to thank each certainly one of you who listened to what the birds have been telling us and acted: those that wrote a letter to native lawmakers, grew native vegetation, participated in a neighborhood science venture, or renewed your Audubon membership. Could the winter vacation season deliver pleasure and renewal to you and your households.
This piece initially ran within the Winter 2022 challenge. To obtain our print journal, grow to be a member by making a donation at the moment.