Symposia Highlight Need for Collaboration, Multi-faceted Approach, and Patience

Pulling inspiration from the case studies and their own experiences, participants discussed the challenges of community engagement and what is needed to be successful.  The most critical challenge, of many, is how to demonstrate the community benefits of shorebird conservation. Benefits include economic opportunities, improved quality of life, better living conditions, connection to necessary natural resources, improved health, and protection of cultural heritage.

Participants were even more enthusiastic about the prospects for successful community engagement. Successful community engagement will require creativity, multiple different activities, collaboration, and assessment of all community resources. In collaboration, it is especially important to consider working with different sectors, such as stakeholders working on social issues, artists, sport groups, and healthy community initiatives. Most importantly, community engagement requires patience and time. Most projects require at least 4-5 years, but many take even longer.

Presentations were followed by an open discussion about the role and use of management and good governance to facilitate conservation at important shorebird sites. Both presenters and participants emphasized the importance of building a shared vision and developing guidelines and tools that provide a framework for action on governance and habitat management actions. The discussion highlighted the need for long term investments in site-specific conservation, participation of government at all stages of the process, and an understanding of local biological resources. It also underscored the idea that while certain threats to shorebirds, like disturbance, are widespread, the solutions to reduce those threats will require collaboration among partners and a unique local application of the tools available.