Hansen BD, Clemens RS, Gallo-Cajiao E, Jackson MV, Maguire GS, Maurer G, Milton D, Rogers DI, Weller DR, Weston MA, Woehler EJ & Fuller RA (2018) Shorebird monitoring in Australia: A successful long-term collaboration between citizen scientists, governments and researchers. Pp. 100-120 in Legge S, Lindenmayer D, Robinson N, Scheele B, Southwell D & Wintle B (eds) Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities. CSIRO, Canberra.
From its beginnings in the 1960s, shorebird monitoring in Australia has grown into a national effort generating high quality information about a large group of migratory and non-migratory waterbirds. Robust information on trends, combined with detailed demographic monitoring and studies of bird movements, has revealed drastic declines, particularly among the migratory species. From the start, monitoring focused on a broad ecological assemblage meaning that the reasons for these declines could be understood through comparative analyses in partnership with researchers. Threats to migratory and non-migratory species, and the actions necessary for their recovery, are increasingly well resolved. Shorebird monitoring in Australia has been a largely decentralised, volunteer-driven effort, funded from both public and private sources. It exemplifies how the public and private sectors can work together to achieve long term monitoring.