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 big predator management. Sweden needs to be proactive in dealing with this problem and develop plans together with other similarly affected countries. As part of a bigger project led Johan Elmberg (Kristianstad University, Sweden) & Johan Mansson (SLU, Sweden), we are working to understand  what drives the conflict, how and why it varies between areas and how effective different collaborative strategies are at managing those conflicts. PhD student, Malin Teräväinen is working on this project, and the overall aim of her research is to evaluate methods to minimize grazing damage by scaring or by sacrificial fields, in order to provide guidelines towards which techniques are most effective in terms of cost versus effect. 

 

Where?

Sweden

 

What species?

People!

Greylag geese

 

Who's involved?

Nils Bunnefeld (University of Stirling)

Steve Redpath (University of Aberdeen)

Malin Teräväinen

Johan Elmberg (Kristianstad University)

Johan Mansson (SLU)

Camilla Sandstrom (Umea University)

Maria Johansson (Lund University)