Goose Management in the Wadden Sea Region

At June 19, the EGMP Task Forces met in order to exchange and discuss the progress over the past year. Main part of the Task Force meeting was covered by the workshop on goose population and damages. Members of the Task Force Agriculture presented and published the final report on “Assessment of goose damage to agricultural crops – is there a relationship between goose abundance and yield loss?” https://egmp.aewa.info/sites/default/files/meeting_files/information_documents/AEWA_EGMIWG_Inf_8.15_Goose_Damage_Impact_Assessment.pdf

From June 20 to 22 the European Goose Management Platform International Working Group Meeting No. 8 (EGMP IWG 8) took place. The documents and results could be found on https://egmp.aewa.info/meetings/iwg/detail/8th-meeting-aewa-european-goose-management-international-working-group-egm-iwg8.  Important step in this meeting was the acknowledgment of the Task Force Agriculture report on the relationship between goose abundance and yield loss. The participants took positive note of the final report. Now the process starts to draw right conclusions and recommendations from the results of the compilation.

At May 23, Dr Düttmann from the Lower Saxon Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Protection presented the main results and conclusions from the research article “Grazing effects of wintering geese on grassland yield: A long-term study from Northwest Germany”. More than 20 participants attended this webinar. After the comprehensive presentation, a vivid discussion took place. Moreover, questions were raised and discussed which conclusions for other regions along the Wadden Sea coast could be drawn.

The next webinar will take place at 28 August 2023, 11 to 12 hours. Kindly, Dr Düttmann is presenting the results in German.

At February 21^st, 10 to 12 hours, another WSF Goose Management Group meeting took place. This meeting focussed on the introduction to the AEWA European Goose Management Platform (EGMP) as well as progress and prospects. The WSF GMG got an overview of the recent developments at AEWA EGMP by Eva Meyers (Coordinator of EGMP), Prof Dr Jesper Madsen (University Aarhus and Head of EGMP Data Centre) and Ingunn Tombre (Coordinator of Task Force Agriculture and Senior Research Scientist of Norwegian Institute of Nature Research).

More than 20 people attended this meeting. Moreover, new participants were welcomed in this meeting of the trilateral WSF Goose Management Group. After each presentation, questions were asked with regard to the work of the EGMP in general and the Data Centre in particular. It gets clear that AEWA EGMP is collecting and processing publicly available and provided data by the Range States on different geese species, which are published on their website. Moreover, the coordinator of the Task Force Agriculture gives a detailed overview of its work. Mrs Tombre invites participants of the meeting to provided suggestions and proposals on topics to be dealt with in the respective Task Force Agriculture.

The presentations of this meeting could be downloaded here:

Invitation as pdf: WSF_GMG_Invitation_2023-02

Eva Meyers, EGMP Coordinator: EGMP_WSF_Meyers

Jesper Madsen, Head of EGMP Data Centre: EGMP_WSF_DataCentre_Madsen

Ingunn Tombre, Coordinator TF Agriculture: EGMP_WSF_TFAgri_Tombre

In fall 2020, we met in Rendsburg gratefully at the Schleswig-Holsteinischen Bauernverband and
exchanged the status of Goose Management in the trilateral Wadden Sea Region. It was agreed to meet again when the results of the project Coperni.Goose are available. At 10 January 2023, the WSF Goose Management Group invited interested persons to get informed about the outcomes of the Coperni.Goose
project commissioned by the MEKUN in Schleswig-Holstein and conducted by the University of Kiel
and the Chamber of Agriculture SH. Additionally, we got a presentation on the peak load management (“Rastspitzenmanagement”) by the Chamber of Agriculture Lower Saxony.

Finally, thirteen people attended the WSF GMG meeting representing the agricultural sector from Germany, i.e. Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony, and Denmark. Moreover, staff of the chambers of agriculture from Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein provided presentations. Staff of the Earth Observation and Modelling Group at the CAU Kiel presented the main results of the project Coperni.Goose. The introduction to the project results were presented by staff of the Ministry for Environment in Schleswig-Holstein.

Invitation as pdf: WSF_GMG_Invitation_2023-01

Presentation 1: CoperniGoose MEKUN LWK Schleswig-Holstein

Presentation 2: CoperniGoose CAU Kiel

Presentation 3: Rastspitzenmodell22 LWK Lower Saxony

The lively discussion between the participants touched upon several items such as that European funding is related only for areas with Agricultural Environmental Schemes or about the differences between Germany and Denmark. Furthermore, it was discussed if the development of an online web application based on the results of the Coperni.Goose project is useful.

From our project "MediaWatt - Media work in the Waddensea World Heritage with voluntary service workers" a short reportage was taken and can be seen here:
https://www.waddensea-forum.org/en/topics/projects/mediawatt
and also here:
youtube.com/channel "MediaWatt"

(As it is a German project the reportage language is German)

The WSF is member of the AEWA EGMP Task Force Agriculture. In 2021, the TF Agriculture organised two webinars. The first was early this summer on “setting the scene” and was held presenting the range states. The second webinar reflected on the question “How to manage agricultural damage and conflicts?”. More than 130 participants attended the online seminar. To re-watch the presentations please use the link as follows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Inmz8zuvipU

For getting the full programme please see pdf-file.

On 27 May 2021, the Agriculture Task Force arranged an online seminar focusing on the goose-agriculture challenges. In this webinar, under the title Setting the Scene, nine different Range States gave a presentation of the main challenges geese cause for agriculture in their country, focusing on the species causing the damage, types of crops damaged, the main challenges and the most challenging times of the year, in terms of agricultural damage. The webinar is a direct response to the EGMP fundamental objective "Minimise agriculture damage and conflicts", and an initiative to facilitate communication, share expertise, knowledge and experiences.

Please read more under: https://egmp.aewa.info/webinar-interphase-between-geese-and-agriculture-setting-scene

The WSF takes part in AEWA meetings as an observer. This year, the two scheduled meetings (EGM IWG and Taskforce Agriculture) were held as online meetings due to the current situation. Documents from the multi-day online meeting of the EGM IWG can be viewed at https://egmp.aewa.info/meetings/egm-iwg. The Agriculture Taskforce met in September 2020 to discuss the work plan for 2021. The contents of this work plan include the closer cooperation with the modeling group and the processing of the topic "cost estimation of goose management". More information at: https://egmp.aewa.info/task-forces/agriculture-task-force.
In the past, the WSF has made various attempts to deal with the challenges in Goose management on a trilateral basis (see below). Regular meetings of the former Goose management working group were suspended. With the discussion about the future work plan in the Taskforce Agriculture at AEWA level, the interest in working on the ongoing challenges in connection with Goose management in the trilateral Wadden Sea region was rekindled. For this reason, the WSF organized an informal meeting of interested parties in October 2020. At this meeting, the existing problems, conflicts and possible solutions, but also positive developments, were exchanged between the participants. The participants consisted of the administration and ministries of the Wadden Sea Region as well as representatives from agriculture. Interested persons are welcome to contact the WSF secretariat for further information. In the future, the WSF Secretariat will hold a meeting on certain topics within the trilateral framework for Goose management.

The WSF plenary discussed in its meeting on 18-19 November the process of implementing the AEWA management plans for Greylag and Barnacle geese on flyway level. These management plans were adopted by the range states in December 2018. For the implementation in the different countries Favorable Reference Values (FRVs) have to be defined. As this process is lacking, the WSF elaborated a resolution, which requests the responsible ministries to speed up the process and support the AEWA concept. The Meeting adopted the resolution without any vote of dissent. See more information and documents down on this page.

Presentation on 30 November 2017 at AEWA European Goose Management Platform:
Status of AEWA Goose Management Plans by Jesper Madsen, Head of AEWA European Goose Management Platform Data Centre, Aarhus University, Denmark

"When the fox preaches, take care of your geese: the urgent need for international collaboration to manage migratory geese"
by David Stroud, Jesper Madsen and Tony Fox, British Birds, February 2016

GOOSE MANAGEMENT: CHALLENGES 2015
27-29 October 2015, Gram Slot, Denmark

In 2015 the WSF goose management group worked on concrete steps to implement the trilateral goose management scheme. The installation of a management group under the responsibilities of the regional governments (province or state level) failed due to low commitment. Further management tasks are beyond the power and responsibility of the WSF and following, it was decided to suspend the regular meetings of the goose working group. Nevertheless, the WSF is going to cooperate with national and international initiatives to minimize the impacts of increasing migratory goose populations in Europe on economic activities and natural ecosystems.

A step forward was taken at the international conference on goose management on 27-29 October 2015 in Denmark. Recommendations for a sound management on flyway level and the establishment of an “European Goose Management Platform” were agreed on and forwarded to the 6^th Session of the Meeting of the Parties of AEWA in Bonn in November 2015 at which the recommendations were adopted.

Meanwhile, the AEWA Goose Management Platform as wells as a working group as coordinating and decision making body of the Platform has been installed. “ The inter-governmental AEWA European Goose Management International Working Group (hereinafter referred to as EGM IWG) is constituted to serve as the coordinating and decision-making body of the AEWA European Goose Management Platform established under the auspices of the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA), following AEWA Resolution 6.4, with the goal to ensure the conservation and sustainable use, as well as the favourable conservation status of the migratory goose species and populations to which it applies. The European Goose Management Platform operates in line with existing international obligations and the pertinent legislative frameworks and regulations, as relevant in each range state, including AEWA, the Bern Convention and the EU Birds Directive for the range states to which these apply”.

The proper management of geese is an issue of increasing relevance in the Wadden Sea Region due to increasing numbers of geese and improved cropping systems favored by geese. On the one hand geese are a natural part of the Wadden Sea and adjoining mainland coastal areas and are a typical element of the Wadden Sea Region biodiversity for which the Wadden Sea states have an international responsibility. They also constitute an important touristic attraction. On the other hand, some goose species cause increasing damage to farmlands, while current management schemes for geese are highly variable between countries and liable to further improvement and harmonization.

A Goose Management Group set up under the Wadden Sea Forum (WSF) with the participation of representatives of national and regional authorities and relevant stakeholders elaborated a report on Goose Management for the Wadden Sea Region, delivered to the 11th Wadden Sea Conference (TGC) in 2010. The WSF Goose report of 2010 contains an extensive analysis of the development of relevant goose populations and the national management schemes in place. Furthermore the report presented an extensive catalogue of management recommendations and guidance for a Wadden Sea Region wide management. The Sylt Declaration welcomed specifically the WSF goose management guidance and the ministers declared their willingness to support the development of a Goose Management Plan in cooperation with relevant authorities, to achieve a balanced management to accommodate geese in the Wadden Sea Region.

But it became clear, however, that the elaboration of a concrete Goose Management Plan is a huge challenge and may not be possible at the level of detail required for a management plan. Therefore, it became more realistic to elaborate a plan, which is a framework scheme on strategic level, similar to the 2010 report, but with integration of more concrete management measures and defined responsibilities. Following, it was agreed to re-establish a Goose Management Group with representatives of farmer organizations, regional authorities, scientists and NGO's. In December 2013, the GMG presented the WSF goose management framework scheme 2013, which was also forwarded for decision to the 12th Trilateral Governmental Conference in February 2014 in Tønder, DK.