Promoting bird conservation in wetland-associated landscapes: Factors influencing avian crop damage and farmers' attitudes

Integrating agroecosystems as bird habitats are very important for long-term conservation planning because intensified agricultural land use has been a global threat to avifauna. To make agriculture compatible with conservation, farming communities play a vital role because the adoption of bird-friendly agricultural practices and involvement in bird conservation initiatives depends much on their acceptance and attitudes toward avian species. In this study, we inter-viewed 376 farmers surrounding the Indawgyi Wetland Ecosystem in Myanmar to investigate the distribution of avian damages to agricultural crops as well as farmers' perspectives about damage mitigations and bird conservation. Results showed that bird-inflicted crop losses were higher in fields close to water and farmers who experienced a higher level of crop damage were more supportive of the need for a compensation scheme and control management of exploiting species. However, when the level of crop damage increased, farmers living away from water became more negative toward the involved species than those living close to water. Findings also indicated that farmers' willingness to conserve birds decreased with increasing distance to water. Villages adjacent to the lake zone were more willing to conserve both exploiting and non-exploiting birds than those living along the stream. We suggest ecosystem-friendly damage mitigation measures and coexistence strategies, especially in areas close to the water, maintaining both bird conser-vation objectives as well as farmers' economic objectives.

Automated summary

Integrating agroecosystems as bird habitats is crucial for long-term conservation planning. Farming communities play a vital role in making agriculture compatible with conservation, as their acceptance and attitudes towards avian species greatly influence the adoption of bird-friendly agricultural practices and involvement in bird conservation initiatives.