The IWJV functions to support strategic and partnership-based bird conservation in accordance with the goals and objectives of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan, North American Waterbird Conservation Plan, Partners in Flight Landbird Conservation Plan, and the State Wildlife Action Plans, as they apply to IWJV objectives. The IWJV is committed to: 1) biological planning/conservation design (determining what needs to be done and where to maintain bird populations at desired levels); 2) habitat delivery (assisting our partners with on-the-ground habitat conservation); and 3) monitoring/evaluation/applied research (supporting key monitoring programs and assumption-driven research).
The IWJV's Capacity Grants Program provides JV partners organized through the IWJV’s 11 State Conservation Partnerships with the opportunity to strategically build the capacity needed to effectively deliver partnership-based bird habitat conservation. The Program fully recognizes that people, rather than federal and state funding, are often the bottleneck to focused conservation delivery. Our goal is to help our broad IWJV partnership put the right people in the right places to catalyze habitat conservation (i.e., projects and programs) that likely wouldn't happen in the absence of the additional capacity.
Capacity Grants are intended to build the habitat conservation delivery capacity of our partners to access significant funding from other programs (Farm Bill, North American Wetlands Conservation Act, etc.). It is intended that successful Capacity Grants will result in sustainable conservation partnerships. These partnerships may be organized around focus areas, priority habitats, promising funding sources (e.g., Farm Bill programs), or community-based coalitions. These conservation partnerships, once supported with IWJV funds, work to strengthen their infrastructure and expand their ability to contribute to IWJV habitat objectives.