Half a century of conservation work by volunteers: History of shorebird monitoring, research, and management actions in Darwin-Garramilla, Northern Territory, Australia
Info
Pages
190 – 194
Published
1 January 25
Authors
Amanda Lilleyman, Gavin O’Brien
DOI
10.18194/ws.00355
Correspondence
Amanda Lilleyman
Amanda.lilleyman.bird@gmail.com
BirdLife Top End, Northern Territory Regional Office, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
Research Institute for Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, 0909, Northern Territory, Australia.
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Migratory shorebirds face a range of threats across their migration pathways and many species are declining. Australia has obligations to protect migratory shorebird habitat and maintain sustainable populations. There is territory and national legislation that aims to protect species and their habitats. There are currently 14 shorebird species listed under the federal threatened species legislation in Australia. Across the nation, people have worked to understand and protect shorebirds for more than half a century. This has been done through activities or actions such as monitoring programs and volunteer work in the form of lobbying, engagement, education, and reporting. In this forum piece, we explore and summarise the activities and actions relating to shorebirds in the Darwin-Garramilla region of the Northern Territory, Australia. We present a historical overview of contributions to the management, research, monitoring, and community activities and provide recommendations for managers and stakeholders in the region. We recorded 83 activities or actions relating to shorebirds from 1972 to February 2023 for the Darwin region of the Northern Territory. A variety of stakeholders have been involved in different ways over the years. Through this work we show that, over the last 51 years in the Darwin region, most activities or actions relating to shorebirds have been carried out by volunteers, including monitoring and community engagement. We hope that this summary will help managers and stakeholders to work strategically across the harbour scale region and provide ongoing funding and resources to the protection of these matters of national and international significance and provide a template for use in other areas.