This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: When Ashley Dayer was walking on the beach with her 8-year-old son recently, he stopped her before she got too close to a group of shorebirds. We have to walk around the shorebirds," he told her.
That moment was the perfect example of the human behavior change she and conservation partners have spent more than a decade trying to encourage along beaches used by both people and imperiled shorebirds. Now, new research suggests those seemingly simple choices by beachgoers could be making a difference for the birds themselves. The team's approach, known as community-based social marketing, or CBSM, goes beyond telling people that shorebirds need protection.
The study, published in Conservation Science and Practice found that shorebirds at beaches with campaigns encouraging people to walk around flocks and give birds space showed significantly less vigilance, or being on alert, than birds at sites without campaigns. Researchers also found lower levels of vigilance at sites with beach stewards present, meaning birds can spend more time on their typical activities like resting and feeding. "Funders and decision-makers often question if outreach is effective or worth the investment in conservation, because ultimately we're all trying to positively affect the species we are trying to conserve," said Sami Livingston, a postdoctoral associate and co-author on the study.
"But it's really hard to match biological outcomes to social interventions. This study is groundbreaking in this way." Dayer and Livingston conceived and designed the broader project, secured its funding, and coached sites on designing and implementing community-based social marketing. The marketing campaigns were based on studies of beachgoers' thoughts and behaviors, undertaken by past Virginia Tech graduate students working with Dayer in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation.
The new paper was led by Sarah Saunders of the National Audubon Society and included collaborators from Audubon, Manomet Conservation Sciences, Dayer and Livingston. In their approach, conservationists first try to understand what drives a particular human behavior and what might make a bird-friendly alternative easier or more appealing. Campaigns can then use tools such as social norms, prompts, commitments, signs, direct engagement or community events to encourage a specific action.
The message and method are tailored to the people and place rather than applied as a one-size-fits-all campaign. "Usually, it's not that beachgoers are thinking, 'I want to disturb a shorebird,'" Dayer explained. "It's that their focus is on enjoying their time at the beach." The challenge is that people and shorebirds often want the same stretch of sand at the same time.
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