Sammendrag
Expanding populations of farmland foraging
geese are causing escalating conflict with agriculture. We
used questionnaires to investigate farmers´ perceptions in
mid-Norway of spring staging geese and the extent to
which they attempt to reduce pasture damage by goose
scaring. We predicted farmers’ scaring effort (a measure of
dissatisfaction) to increase on fields closer to goose
roosting sites where goose grazing intensity was highest
(measured by dropping counts). Results showed no such
relationship, suggesting that farmers’ perception of goose
use was not linked to actual goose use, but influenced by
sociological factors and individual opinion. These results
confirm the need to distribute subsidies/compensation to
affected farmers based upon quantifiable measures of goose
use rather than complaint levels. To avoid further conflict
escalation, it is equally important that managers are aware
of farmers´ perceptions and their causes, to effectively
target communication about policies and measures to
mitigate goose–agriculture problems.
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