The effectiveness of management options in reducing human disturbance to wetland and coastal birds

Abstract

Human disturbance to wildlife is a serious conservation issue for many groups of species. Birds inhabiting wetland and coastal environments may be of particular concern as they are exposed to disturbance both on land and on water, and due to growing pressure from tourism and leisure activities human disturbance in these environments may increase in the future. There are a wide variety of available management options referred to in the literature which aim to reduce or mitigate the negative impacts of disturbance to wetland and coastal birds. This review assesses the evidence for the effectiveness of these different management measures in reducing human disturbance to wetland and coastal birds such as waterfowl, shorebirds and nesting seabirds. The aims of this review therefore are to inform conservation decision making and to target future research in this field. Although the evidence base for the effectiveness of most management options is poor, there are some examples of successful conservation strategies to reduce disturbance to these groups of species and the benefits of using multiple management measures is also apparent. Future research should aim to fill the many gaps in our knowledge relating to the effectiveness of the management options discussed here, in order to better target conservation efforts.