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Note: Teacher’s notes are in red
“Migrating Across Borders”
Purpose
Conservation often requires cooperation between countries. This activity raises basic issues of international cooperation in the preservation of one bird—the golden-winged warbler—but also helps students understand other conservation issues that cross political boundaries or involve disparate groups of people.
Your Mission
Protect the habitats of the golden-winged warbler by serving at a mock International Migratory Bird Summit as a representative of a country through which the warbler migrates.
Relevant Subjects: Geography, Science
Relevant U.S. National Geography Standards: 1, 4, 13, 14, 18
Materials
Focusing on Migration
Many species of animals are migratory, traveling seasonally to places where they can breed or feed. These animals require not only habitats in different places but also safe passageways in between. When species migrate across international boundaries, protecting them requires the collaboration of different governments. (Protecting areas of biodiversity for threatened or endangered species is especially important.) To learn more about migration and the golden-winged warbler, visit the National Audubon Society (http://www.audubon.org/bird/
watch/gww/gww.html).
The student summit in this activity focuses on the golden-winged warbler, which migrates across 11 countries, but you may choose another species that migrates across international boundaries as the subject for your students’ summit.
Lead a class discussion that will help students focus their “geographic eyes” on migration and on the need for protecting species that migrate—especially endangered or threatened species. (Refer to a world map during the discussion.) Questions to ask:
- Why do animals migrate?
- What are some species that migrate? (Examples: humpback whale, wildebeest, monarch butterfly, caribou, whooping crane, Canada goose.)
- What problems can arise in protecting species that move across political borders? (Protecting them requires the collaboration of different governments and, often, different agencies within a government.)
Mapping a Strategy
The golden-winged warbler crosses ten international borders as it migrates between its breeding range and its winter range. (In the United States, the warbler lives in or migrates through 18 states.) Use the “Migrating Across Borders” map your teacher gives you to help devise a strategy for protecting the warbler.
- Plot the warbler’s fall migration route from its breeding grounds to its winter home.
- Label the states and countries within the ranges and along the route. (Need help with names? Visit our Xpeditions Atlas at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions.)
- Research a country through which the warbler migrates. Consider basic questions such as whether your country is primarily agricultural or industrial. For general information about your country, visit the Flags and Facts section of the nationalgeographic.com Map Machine (http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/
mapmachine/facts_fs.html). Check the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (http://www.wcmc.org.uk/data/
database/un_combo.html) for statistics about land set aside for wildlife and to learn about conservation efforts.
Use the information you have gathered to develop a strategy to protect the golden-winged warbler in “your” nation.
Distribute a copy of the map supplement to each student. Have students note the breeding range and winter range of the golden-winged warbler. Ask students to plot the bird’s migration route, then label the states and countries within the ranges and along the route. Then ask the following questions:
- How many U.S. states host the breeding warbler? How many countries?
- How many more U.S. states are host to the migrating warbler? How many countries?
- Which countries are host to the wintering warbler?
Tell students that they’re going to take part in the “International Migratory Bird Summit,” in which countries will negotiate with each other to protect the golden-winged warbler. (The U.S. negotiated the Migratory Bird Treaty with Canada in 1916 and with Mexico in 1937.)
Divide the students into small teams, each representing a country in which the warbler lives or through which it passes at some time during the year. (The U.S. delegation should include representatives from both the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the U.S. State Department. The Fish & Wildlife delegation primarily should include biologists with scientific expertise. State’s should have diplomats—many of them members of the U.S. Foreign Service—experienced in international negotiation.) During the course of its research, each team should choose a spokesperson.
Reaching the Summit
At the “International Migratory Bird Summit,” you will be working with representatives from other countries to ensure the warbler's safety. Before the start of the negotiations, consider these questions:
- What are your country’s goals?
- Is focusing on wildlife conservation in its best interests?
- What other pressing needs does it have?
- Can it afford to spend money on wildlife conservation?
- Does it have nonmigratory animals that are in peril?
- How can such enterprises as ecotourism encourage people in your country to help?
- What role can education play?
- What factors might motivate the other countries at the summit, and how can you package what you want so it is most satisfactory to them—and to the warbler?
Stage the summit. Assign one student to act as moderator. (You may want to assign one or two students to write press releases after the summit.) First, each representative should state his or her country’s position. Then all can begin negotiating.
- Can the class agree on strategies to benefit this bird?
- In what ways can local people be enlisted to help? Through ecotourism? Education?
- Have groups discuss negotiating points, then try to agree on compromises.
- When all points have been agreed on and written up, representatives can sign the document.
(Note: This activity is greatly simplified to raise basic issues of international cooperation in the preservation of species. The issues of migratory birds are extremely complex. The different host countries of a species often have conflicting economic, political, social, or environmental factors to consider, and almost every bird species has different needs.)
Take Action!
- Visit the World Wildlife Fund Action Center (http://www.worldwildlife.org/actions/
actioncenter.cfm) for the latest news on wildlife issues and to learn what you can do to support wildlife.
- Learn about birds at risk and what you can do to help by checking out the Watchlist at the National Audubon Society site (http://www.audubon.org/bird/watch).
- Find out if any species migrate through your area and what protective measures, if any, have been taken to ensure their safety.
(Remember: Think globally, act locally.)
Activity adapted from the 1996 Geography Awareness Week teacher’s handbook. © 1996 National Geographic Society.
“Migrating Across Borders” map by Martin Walz, from the 1996 Geography Awareness Week teacher’s handbook. © 1996 National Geographic Society.
Golden-winged warbler art by Robert Cremins, from the 1996 Geography Awareness Week teacher’s handbook.
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