Conservation without borders - Solutions to declines of migratory shorebirds in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway
- Authors: Szabo, Judit , Choi, Chi-Yeung , Clemens, Robert , Hansen, Birgita
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: Emu Vol. 116, no. 2 (2016), p. 215-221
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Globally, populations of migratory shorebirds are threatened and declining rapidly. This is especially true for those using the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), where loss of intertidal mudflats in crucial staging areas, especially around the Yellow Sea, is considered to be the primary driver of declines. The conservation of migratory shorebirds faces considerable challenges, including competing demands on wetland habitats, compounded by differing economic priorities, jurisdictions and attitudes towards wildlife among the countries along shorebird migratory routes. A key aspect of addressing these challenges is to protect more habitat and improve management of shorebird habitat, both in protected and unprotected areas. This ultimately requires stronger commitments from national governments, for instance by enforcing and strengthening multilateral and bilateral agreements. However, economic drivers for development Erode the effectiveness of these policy tools. Here, we highlight the socio-political approaches needed to ensure implementation of conservation actions. The success of these actions will hinge on stronger engagement of citizens and governments in habitat protection and shorebird monitoring. One part of this strategy is to increase awareness in communities and governments of shorebird issues through international collaboration, knowledge sharing, capacity-building and support for local action (of both citizens and government officials). International actions mediated among flyway partners, for example bilateral agreements on the preservation of intertidal mudflats and co-funding to support this, are critical to halting shorebird population declines. © BirdLife Australia 2016.
Continental-scale decreases in shorebird populations in Australia
- Authors: Clemens, Robert , Rogers, Danny , Hansen, Birgita , Gosbell, Ken , Minton, Clive , Straw, Phil , Bamford, Mike , Woehler, Eric , Milton, David , Weston, Michael , Venables, Bill , Weller, Dan , Hassell, Chris , Rutherford, Bill , Onton, Kimberly , Herrod, Ashley , Studds, Colin , Choi, Chi-Yeung , Dhanjal-Adams, Kiran , Murray, Nicholas , Skilleter, Gregory , Fuller, Richard
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Emu Vol. 116, no. 2 (2016), p. 119-135
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Decreases in shorebird populations are increasingly evident worldwide, especially in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF). To arrest these declines, it is important to understand the scale of both the problem and the solutions. We analysed an expansive Australian citizen-science dataset, spanning the period 1973 to 2014, to explore factors related to differences in trends among shorebird populations in wetlands throughout Australia. Of seven resident Australian shorebird species, the four inland species exhibited continental decreases, whereas the three coastal species did not. Decreases in inland resident shorebirds were related to changes in availability of water at non-tidal wetlands, suggesting that degradation of wetlands in Australia's interior is playing a role in these declines. For migratory shorebirds, the analyses revealed continental decreases in abundance in 12 of 19 species, and decreases in 17 of 19 in the southern half of Australia over the past 15 years. Many trends were strongly associated with continental gradients in latitude or longitude, suggesting some large-scale patterns in the decreases, with steeper declines often evident in southern Australia. After accounting for this effect, local variables did not explain variation in migratory shorebird trends between sites. Our results are consistent with other studies indicating that decreases in migratory shorebird populations in the EAAF are most likely being driven primarily by factors outside Australia. This reinforces the need for urgent overseas conservation actions. However, substantially heterogeneous trends within Australia, combined with declines of inland resident shorebirds indicate effective management of Australian shorebird habitat remains important. © BirdLife Australia 2016.
Collect, connect, upscale : towards coordinated monitoring of migratory shorebirds in the asia-pacific
- Authors: Fuller, Richard , Jackson, Micha , Amano, Tatsuya , Choi, Chi-Yeung , Hansen, Birgita
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Zoologist Vol. 41, no. 2 (2021), p. 205-213
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Monitoring migratory species can be extremely challenging. For example, millions of migratory shorebirds migrate from breeding grounds in northern China, Mongolia and Russia to East Asia and Australasia each year, traversing more than 20 countries while on migration. Studies within individual nations have identified rapid declines in many species, yet progress toward a fully unified scheme for continuous tracking of population change at the scale of the entire East Asian-Australasian Flyway has been slow. To reflect on lessons learned and consider how further progress might be made, we review some of the factors that have limited the full emergence of shorebird monitoring in the East Asian- Australasian Flyway, including fragmentation among multiple databases, low data readiness, inadequate metadata and gaps in survey coverage. We conclude that while technical solutions for many of these issues do exist, the biggest challenge is to navigate the significant organisational, socio-cultural and resourcing contexts of those people doing the monitoring. Technical solutions alone will not create a cohesive network of people whose local efforts are pooled to create robust flyway-scale monitoring. © 2021 Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales. All rights reserved. *Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Birgita Hansen” is provided in this record**