364 Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities
project. This program has a stringent training and assessment process that requires
potential participants to complete and pass (80% correct) both physical training
and an online assessment before they can become registered participants in the
program. Training workshops ensure that the connection between BirdLife and the
project’s conservation aims and the program participants is continually reinforced,
with participants able to see how their volunteering contributes to the growing
knowledge base around beach-nesting birds. This training also allows for greater
confidence in the data collected because participants need to show a thorough
understanding of the methods through the accreditation process. An annual
conference allows all program participants to get together and share knowledge
and experience, and present the scientific findings extracted from the volunteer-
collected data as well as communicate the on-ground management strategies that
have been implemented.
Conservation actions
The translation from data collection and monitoring to conservation actions has
been identified by many participants as an important motivator for them to
continue their participation in a citizen science project (Roy et al. 2012).
Conservation actions include any behavioural, management or legislative change
that occurs as a direct result of the citizen science program. These could be small,
localised behavioural shifts such as changes in the way beach goers use an area. For
example, the Beach-nesting Birds project has sound data collected by both
volunteers and researchers that has conclusively shown that a behavioural change
as simple as keeping dogs on leads during peak nesting periods can have extensive
benefits to the success rates of nesting hooded plovers Thinornis cucullatus. Several
local councils have introduced regulation changes in response to these findings,
following social pressure from their communities. An independent review of the
management protocols undertaken for Mornington Peninsula National Park found
convincing evidence, much of which came from the Beach-nesting Bird program,
to support a blanket ban on dogs in the national park and as a result the park is
now dog-free. Other regions are working through changes in their beach-use plans
and, although this is a slow process, community involvement in the conservation
efforts around the hooded plover are gaining traction and seeing positive on-
ground management changes. These changes validate the time and effort
volunteers have committed to the project. The data collected are also showing a
widespread improvement in the breeding success of the hooded plover.
Species recovery
The translation of volunteer effort into species recovery, or at least stability, should
be a primary objective for any threatened species citizen science program, but is
this realistic? If resources are being committed to a species with the aim of