Population declines of numerous migrant songbirds have rightfully aroused great public concern about the recent loss of tropical forest habitats. However, extensive coastlines and vast grasslands of North and South America, Africa, and Australia have been under human impact for hundreds of years. Migratory wetland birds of the northern hemisphere that skirted or flew over tropical forests also must have been greatly affected by coastal urbanization and development and by drainage of freshwater wetlands for agriculture, especially since the late 1800s. Such wetland losses undoubtedly influenced the decline of the northern water and grassland birds much as we now see in tropical forest regions. Scientists working with shorebirds and waterfowl have recognized and promoted multinational and global-scale conservation programs (Myers et al. 1987); such goals will continue to be one of our greatest conservation challenges.

Conservation of wetland birds resembles that of other groups of animal because all require a major emphasis on preservation of habitat, but it differs in its landscape or global scale. To this point, we have been discussing how habitat resources influence the success of wetland birds, and even how they compete for resources among themselves; we now examine how they compete with society for resources at several levels. Obvious, there is a tremendous geographic variation, and emphasis here will be mostly on the American scene because I know that best – not that it is necessarily better. In fact, most societies seem to have profited little from the past mistakes of other nations, even when communication is good.