Patricia Zurita is CEO of BirdLife International, a leading conservation organization that works with 115 national partner organizations and 13 million members to protect birds and their habitats worldwide. In an interview marking BirdLife’s 100th anniversary, she shared her vision for how the world can create a healthy environment for healthy societies in the coming century.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I truly have the best job in the world because I get to work everywhere — our focus covers all continents, landscapes, and seascapes. I love being able to combine global reach, internationally recognized science, and local, on-the-ground expertise in a way that yields conservation successes that we can all benefit from.

For example, BirdLife maintains bird data for the IUCN Red List and for the global Important Bird Areas database, which has grown into the Key Biodiversity Areas partnership. This data collection and recording is vitally important and speaks to the enormous value of the work of our staff and volunteers around the world.

How did the global pandemic affect your work?

COVID-19 had a devastating impact on human health, the economy, and livelihoods worldwide. It has also had widespread impacts on international efforts to protect birds, the full extent of which is yet to be determined. Travel restrictions, social distancing measures, and wage cuts have impacted fieldwork and on-the-ground conservation.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Significantly lower tourism reduced pressures on some sensitive areas for wildlife. The drastic reduction of travel temporarily cut greenhouse gas emissions. We also saw more people discover birds or deepen their appreciation for the avian wildlife just outside their windows. The Birdsong Project is an example of that, with more than 220 artists coming together during the pandemic for an outpouring of creativity, all in the name of celebrating and supporting birds.

How did you get into this line of work?

After studying environmental science in Ecuador, I did a master’s degree in natural resource economics at Duke University. I realized as a student that in order to preserve biodiversity and advance human well-being, we would need to build an economic system that values nature in different ways than humanity has done over the last two centuries.

After graduating I spent seven years at Conservation International, and then became Executive Director of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, which gave me the opportunity to direct investments in biodiversity conservation efforts worldwide. These experiences brought me to my role as BirdLife International, which made me the first woman from a developing country to lead a major international conservation organization.

BirdLife International turns 100 this year. What does this mean for you?

BirdLife has accomplished so much over the last century — 2,000 of the most important sites for nature have been protected, including 2 million hectares of rainforest; hundreds of globally threatened bird species have benefited from the work of BirdLife partnerships; and millions of people across the world have been engaged to protect birds and nature.

But it’s not enough to rest on these accomplishments. We have a lot of work to do to protect the natural world into the next century. The next decade will be critical to stopping the worst impacts from the climate change and biodiversity crises. At least 1 million species are at risk of extinction, changes in our climate are causing unprecedented natural disasters, and the pressures we’re putting on our planet are unsustainable. This is our moment of truth.

What are you currently focused on?

One of our major priorities is protecting the habitats of migratory birds along the length of the routes they travel, known as global flyways.

For instance, BirdLife recently launched a $3 billion initiative in partnership with the Asian Development Bank and regional governments to restore ecosystems along the path of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway – one of the world’s eight major bird migration superhighways. Every year, 50 million waterbirds of over 200 different species migrate along this route stretching from Siberia and Alaska to Australia and New Zealand. The flyway connects coastal wetlands spanning 20 countries, providing habitats where shorebirds can stop to feed, rest, and refuel before continuing their journey.

The habitats along this flyway don’t just benefit migratory birds. For the 200 million people who live in and around them, these wetlands are a lifeline. Every year, they protect coasts from the impacts of flooding, sea level rise and storm surges, and provide food, employment, and recreation. They also absorb vast amounts of carbon, helping to fight climate change.

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