Goose management schemes to resolve conflicts with agriculture: Theory, practice and effects

2017/02/18 by Einar Eythórsson, Ingunn Tombre, Ingunn M. Tombre +1 · 44 citations
Environmental Science · Health Professions · #Accountability #Adaptive management #Agriculture #Business #Ecology #Ecology and biodiversity studies #Economics #Environmental planning #Environmental resource management #Flyway #Futures studies #Geography #Goose #Indigenous Studies and Ecology #Natural resource economics #Political science #Population #Sociology #Subsidy #Transparency (behavior) #Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s13280-016-0884-4

published in AMBIO 46(S2), 231-240 (Springer Science+Business Media)

openalex publication_date 2017/02/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

In 2012, the four countries hosting the Svalbard population of pink-footed goose Anser brachyrhynchus along its flyway launched an International Species Management Plan for the population. One of the aims was to reduce conflicts between geese and agriculture to an acceptable level. Since 2006, Norway has offered subsidies to farmers that provide refuge areas for geese on their land. We evaluate the mid-Norwegian goose management subsidy scheme, with a view to its adjustment to prevailing ecological and socio-economic parameters. The analysis indicates that the legitimacy of the scheme is highly dependent on transparency of knowledge management and accountability of management scheme to the farming community. Among farmers, as well as front-line officials, outcomes of prioritisation processes within the scheme are judged unfair when there is an evident mismatch between payments and genuine damage. We suggest how the scheme can be made more fair and responsive to ecological changes, within a framework of adaptive management.

Citations

• Prioritizing refuge sites for migratory geese to alleviate conflicts with agriculture

Cited by

• Flying without fear: Shooting disturbance has little effect on site preferences in a conflict goose species
• Implementation of the first adaptive management plan for a European migratory waterbird population: The case of the Svalbard pink-footed goose Anser brachyrhynchus. [europepmc]
• High Grazing Pressure of Geese Threatens Conservation and Restoration of Reed Belts. [europepmc]
• Time series analysis reveals synchrony and asynchrony between conflict management effort and increasing large grazing bird populations in northern Europe. [europepmc]
• Reducing human pressure on farmland could rescue China's declining wintering geese. [europepmc]
• Long-term changes in herbivore community and vegetation impact of wild and domestic herbivores across Iceland. [europepmc]
• Agricultural habitat use and selection by a sedentary bird over its annual life cycle in a crop-depredation context. [europepmc]
• Responses to extreme drought in wintering waterbirds: a multi-species approach. [europepmc]
• A multi-species model for goose management: Competition and facilitation drive space use of foraging geese. [europepmc]

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