From field and farm to flyway: management of geese in new landscapes

There are more geese than ever sharing agricultural landscapes with humans. These systems offer ideal conditions for geese, leading to conflicts that are very costly for society. Managing geese is complicated, as nine species are involved in Sweden alone, each with its specific management needs. Since geese are migratory and cross several national borders, conflicts involve more actors than for example management of terrestrial mammals. Sweden needs to be proactive in dealing with this problem and develop plans together with other similarly affected countries. Objectives In response to knowledge gaps, stakeholder requests and imminent management challenges, we propose a six-year project comprising four integrated sub-projects to: 1) understand movements and habitat utilization by geese in the new agricultural landscapes, 2) evaluate and develop tools to alleviate crop damage, 3) understand patterns and processes in the socio-ecological goose management system, and 4) to provide improvement guidelines for upcoming management plans. The project has an explicit multi-species multi-actor inter-disciplinary approach spanning spatial scales from field and farm to flyway. It will provide missing knowledge and tools facilitating proactive future management of geese.