[Pollinator] New MOU with US Fish and Wildlife Service

[Jen Marks]

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and Coevolution Institute/NAPPC have signed a Memorandum of Understanding!

 

The following was sent out via e-mail to the FWS as an All-Employee Memorandum:


 To:         All FWS Employees

 From:       Deputy Director  /s/ Marshall P. Jones Jr.

 Subject:    Memorandum of Understanding with Coevolution Institute/North American Pollinator Protection Campaign


 Last October, the Service signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Coevolution Institute, which is the non-profit administrator for a collaboration known as the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign
 (NAPPC).  Through NAPPC more than over 100 private, government, university and non-profit organizations are working to encourage the health of resident and migratory pollinating animals in North America.  NAPPC is cooperative conservation at its best.

 Pollinators are crucial to healthy ecosystems and healthy economies. Ninety percent of all our flowering plants are pollinated by insects, birds or bats, and more than three-fourths of the world's crops rely on insects and other animals for pollination.  The global economic benefit of pollination has been is estimated at $117 billion.  Declines in the health and population of pollinators could pose a substantial threat to the integrity of biodiversity, global food webs, and to human health.  Several pollinator species are federally listed as endangered [e.g., Palila
 (Hawaiian bird) and Delhi Sands flower-loving fly], and indications are that pollinators are disappearing at an alarming rate.

 The MOU establishes a broad framework for working with the Coevolution Institute and NAPPC towards the conservation of to conserve native North American pollinator and pollinator-dependent animal and plant species and their habitats.  You can view the MOU at: https://intranet.fws.gov/region9/outreach/MOUlist.htm

 The Service's work already is doing much to benefits pollinators, both directly and indirectly.  Habitat conservation and restoration, contaminant and chemical management and species management and recovery are among the many ongoing activities already ongoing that benefit pollinators. But there is more to do.  I encourage you to consider how your current activities might benefit pollinators.  Providing interpretation on pollinators, incorporating pollinator health into ecosystem planning and accounting for pollinator decline or restoration are just a few things  that we can do in cooperation with NAPPC.   Please continue your work in this arena and look for additional ways to work with NAPPC partners to benefit our nation's pollinator populations.

 Please review attachment 1 and 2 to see determine how you might conserve pollinators, educate the public about the benefits they provide, and enhance your program's success through cooperation with NAPPC partners. For further information and/or to share your pollinator success stories contact Dr. Mamie Parker, Assistant Director, Fisheries and Habitat Conservation, at  (202) 208-6394.



Jen Marks
Education and Development Coordinator
Coevolution Institute
415-362-1137
jm at nappc.org
jm at coevolution.org