PLOS ONE: Avitourism and Australian Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas

[David Rees <>]

This thing seems to be sadly typical of the turgid prose that gets written these day in the name of 'science'.  Bird watching done in a responsible manner can provide a good source of income for local people providing accommodation, meals, transport, guiding services, assess to special places on private land etc.etc. I'm sure many of us would not wander in small town inland Australia and spend money there if it was not for the promise of a good bird or three.  

I am always impressed by the level of enterprise you see among private landholders in NZ in this regard.

David

On Thu, Dec 31, 2015 at 3:08 PM, Martin Butterfield <> wrote:

I am intrigued by the phrase "avitour companies and IBA stakeholders".  This implies that the authors do not see avitourism companies as stakeholders in the IBAs.  

Surely these companies are extremely important stakeholders in those areas,  or are stakes in IBAs only able to be held by Serious Scientists and their acolytes?

Martin

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

On 31 December 2015 at 14:30, David McDonald (personal) <> wrote:

For info: Steven R, Morrison C, Arthur JM, Castley JG (2015) Avitourism and Australian Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas. PLoS ONE 10(12): e0144445. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0144445
David

Abstract
Formal protected areas will not provide adequate protection to conserve all biodiversity, and are not always designated using systematic or strategic criteria. Using a systematic process, the Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) network was designed to highlight areas of conservation significance for birds (i.e. IBA trigger species), and more recently general biodiversity. Land use activities that take place in IBAs are diverse, including consumptive and non-consumptive activities. Avitourism in Australia, generally a non-consumptive activity, is reliant on the IBA network and the birds IBAs aim to protect. However, companies tend not to mention IBAs in their marketing. Furthermore, avitourism, like other nature-based tourism has the potential to be both a threatening process as well as a conservation tool. We aimed to assess the current use of IBAs among Australian-based avitour companies’ marketing, giving some indication of which IBAs are visited by avitourists on organised tours. We reviewed online avitour itineraries, recorded sites featuring in descriptions of avitours and which IBA trigger species are used to sell those tours. Of the 209 avitours reviewed, Queensland is the most featured state (n = 59 tours), and 73% feature at least one IBA. Daintree (n = 22) and Bruny Island (n = 17) IBAs are the most popular, nationally. Trigger species represent 34% (n = 254 out of 747) of species used in avitour descriptions. The most popular trigger species’ are wetland species including; Brolga (n = 37), Black-necked Stork (n = 30) and Magpie Goose (n = 27). Opportunities exist to increase collaboration between avitour companies and IBA stakeholders. Our results can provide guidance for managing sustainability of the avitourism industry at sites that feature heavily in avitour descriptions and enhance potential cooperation between avitour companies, IBA stakeholders and bird conservation organisations.

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David McDonald
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