Urban bird conservation presenting stakeholdersp

Authors: Robbert PH Snep Jip Louwe Kooijmans Robert GM Kwak Ruud PB Foppen Holly Parsons Monica Awasthy Henk LK Sierdsema John M Marzluff Esteban FernandezJuricic Jenny de Laet Yolanda M van Heezik

Publish Date: 2015/03/24

Volume: 19, Issue: 4, Pages: 1535-1550

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Abstract

Following the call from the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity “Cities Biodiversity Outlook” project to better preserve urban biodiversity this paper presents stakeholderspecific statements for bird conservation in city environments Based upon the current urban bird literature we focus upon habitat fragmentation limited habitat availability lack of the native vegetation and vegetation structure as the most important challenges facing bird conservation in cities We follow with an overview of the stakeholders in cities and identify six main groups having the greatest potential to improve bird survival in cities i urban planners urban designers and landscape architects ii urban developers and engineers iii homeowners and tenants iv companies and industries v landscaping and gardening firms vi education professionals Given that motivation to act positively for urban birds is linked to stakeholderspecific advice we present ten statements for birdfriendly cities that are guided by an action perspective and argument for each stakeholder group We conclude with a discussion on how the use of stakeholderspecific arguments can enhance and rapidly advance urban bird conservation actionIn their recent paper called the Cities Biodiversity Outlook the Convention on Biological Diversity CBD ICLEI the local governments for sustainability and the Stockholm Resilience Centre calls for action and policy to conserve urban biodiversity maintain the ecological functioning of cities and offer citizens opportunities to experience and learn about local wildlife in cities worldwide CBD 2012 “With the growing awareness of the value of biodiversity and ecosystem services cities with rich native biodiversity should ensure that their biodiversity is conserved Cities with impoverished biodiversity should pursue enhancement restoration and reintroduction efforts to increase native biodiversity” p25 Following this call this paper presents a list of 10 statements and arguments—targeting different stakeholder groups—on why we should take steps to transform traditional city environments into more birdfriendly ones Cities are complex socioecological systems Moffatt and Kohler 2008 in which to roll out a traditional bird conservation programme that targets only a small number of different stakeholder groups They have mosaics of divergent land uses with each land use having its own habitat quality for each bird species Moreover cities present a high multistakeholder environment where people have different roles and stakes in different settings CBD 2012 TeillacDeschamps et al 2009 An urban dweller can be a homeowner an employee a shopping mall client a sportsman … all the same person but not at the same time Further bird conservation in cities is often not seen as a priority when the species themselves may be abundant and when many people feed birds in their gardens Davies et al 2009 spending millions of dollars annually to do so Clucas et al 2014 However feeding birds is not the only conservation action that can be taken for birds in citiesThis paper aims to improve existing urban bird conservation practice by exploring ways of engaging people within their different roles by presenting arguments and action perspectives that are tailored to various urban stakeholder groups These arguments are based upon the opportunities that various urban stakeholders may offer to conserve urban birds through the creation of essential habitat features eg the provision of safe nesting places whilst reducing urban threats barriers and disturbances eg reducing window collisions Specifically these opportunities vary from creating cohesive and robust green infrastructure planning and design Tzoulas et al 2007 to providing wildlifefriendly architecture and garden management Sufficientlysized and wellconnected green patches cities are necessary to accommodate a rich urban bird community habitat quantity but this must also occur in conjunction with proper green design and management to ensure there is also sufficient habitat quality A variety of stakeholders must be including in order to achieve the habitat quality and quantity required for birdfriendly cities from the direct ecological influencers eg city park managers garden owners to the highly important but often missed city infrastructure influencers eg planners project developers architectsThis paper begins with a brief overview of the current value of cities as bird habitat and outlines the major challenges that urban environments may present for bird survival We then identify the wide range of key stakeholders who play a vital role in ensuring and enhancing urban bird populations and their city habitat Based upon each stakeholder’s characteristics we present ten statements for birdfriendly cities that are guided by an action perspective and a specific argument for the key stakeholder We conclude with a discussion on how the use of stakeholderspecific arguments can enhance and rapidly advance urban bird conservation actionNumerous studies have highlighted the high avian species richness of city environments eg Donnelly and Marzluff 2004 Marzluff 2005 although most of these studies have focused upon a single or very few cities Aronson et al 2014 compared the lists of birds recorded in 149 cities equally spread around the globe and found that 20  of all bird species have been recorded in cities In some parts of the world that have a long history of urbanization this proportion may be higher In an overview of the breeding birds in European cities Kelcey and Rheinwald 2005 showed that 272 bird species including national Red List species were observed in at least one of these 11 cities Berlin Bonn Bratislava Brussels Florence Hamburg Lisbon Lublin Moscow Prague Rome St Petersburg Sofia Valencia Vienna and Warsaw Given that Hagemeijer and Blair 1997 identified a total of 495 breeding bird species in Europe excluding the small number of nonbreeding European bird species the 272 bird species observed in cities constitute a substantial part approximately 50  of the total bird species richness of Europe In addition a recent survey of 49 countries conducted by BirdLife International that 19 to 42  of all 10500 bird species as currently described by science use city environments as prime habitat Fergus et al 2013Cities can also be important for the population numbers of certain species One may expect that in any given country the proportion of bird species for which cities are the main habitat depends upon both the area of urban landscape and the age since urbanization as well as the specific habitat characteristics of the urban area For example the Netherlands is a Western European country with a long history of urbanization which has resulted in an urban area that covers 16  of the country’s surface For approximately one third of its breeding bird species 45 of the 151 species the proportion of breeding pairs that settle in urban environments is higher than the actual proportion of the urban land cover 16  For 13 of the 151 breeding bird species the urban proportion of breeding pairs was even more than half of the national breeding population Kwak and Louwe Kooijmans 2009 In this case the urban environment appears to be a very important habitat Unfortunately similar statistics for most other countries are unknown In the BirdLife International survey of urban birds only 27  of participating countries n = 49 have a dedicated monitoring scheme for urban birds Fergus et al 2013The variable habitat quality of city environments may affect population shifts in birds so that some populations grow some decline and others remain stable in an interplay of sourcesink dynamism Oleyar 2011 Marzluff in review Some studies suggest that urban habitats may act as sinks recruiting birds from the city edge eg van Heezik et al 2010 while others classify city environments as suitable habitats for supporting passerine bird populations eg Balogh et al 2011

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