Collaboration as a Conservation Philosophy: The Legacy of Jim Chu

For more than 20 years, biologists, NGO professionals, officials, and protected area managers have visited the Copper River Delta and other sites connected along the Pacific Flyway with Jim in order to articulate conservation projects and initiatives linked to the flyway. Visits to important shorebird sites in the Americas facilitated and accompanied by Jim have strengthened a borderless collaboration. His influence was decisive in the construction of my professional vision, marking a before and after in my work in conservation. Broadening the perception of how to involve communities in conservation processes changed radically, and my understanding of the meaning of collaboration was no longer the same.   

Jim Chu has been central to the conservation of shorebirds and their habitats on a hemispheric scale. His legacy is to have generated hundreds of those necessary connections between people, projects and initiatives that advance conservation, always putting at the top of the agenda; collaborative work, partnerships and articulation, as a philosophy of action and management. But Jim went further and perhaps his most innovative hallmark was to cross the boundary between work and friendship and integrate both variables. The construction of lasting relationships and solid interpersonal ties with the common purpose of conservation is undoubtedly one of his main legacies in terms of the human dimension of conservation.   

Since meeting him at the San Francisco airport, I have had the opportunity to be close to and learn from Jim for almost 15 years. I was able to accompany him and see him in action in Panama, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, the United States, and Canada, on the coast, in the forests, in the jungle, in the desert, or in the high Andes. To this day I am still amazed by his enormous energy, his admirable impetus, he seems to be tireless.   

One of the aspects that struck me most about Jim’s work in the field, with the communities, was his intergenerational outlook. Fostering partnerships for today and tomorrow, he had a keen eye for identifying and supporting young researchers and local conservation leaders with great potential, or who were taking their first steps. He was also a bridge between current and future generations.   

 I will always remember him tucked in his printed folders under his arm promoting CRIMBI, or with his backpack full of snacks and cereal bars, or with his iconic yellow University of Michigan American football team t-shirt, or for his permanent appearances in the powerpoint photos of any meeting or seminar that deigns to talk about shorebird conservation in the Americas. I will also remember his vocation and passion for understanding our Latino characteristics, cultures, and worldviews.   

Having served just over 43 years with the U.S. Forest Service, now retired but still in action, Jim Chu’s legacy is on the move, taking many different forms of collaboration. His advice, stories, and teachings continue to fly through the flyways of the Americas, in articulations that are in progress and conservation initiatives that will be sustained in the short, medium, and long term. We, your friends, your partners, your collaborators, your apprentices, thank you for so much! Birds, bats and butterflies too.