PCJV projects help carry out the goals of four major bird conservation initiatives. Each initiative is focused on a group of birds and the habitats they need for breeding, wintering, and migration.

• North American Waterfowl Management Plan: ducks, geese, swans
  
  
• North American Waterbird Conservation Plan: seabirds, coastal waterbirds, wading birds, and marshbirds (for example: herons, egrets, gulls, terns, pelicans and marshbirds)
  
  
• U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan: shorebirds
  
  
• Partners in Flight: landbirds, especially neotropical migrants (species that breed in North America and winter in Central and South America) as well as other species requiring terrestrial habitats.