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Culture and conservation: restoring seabird populations on the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence

Kathleen A. Blanchard

Recent increases in population levels of colonial breeding seabirds along the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada demonstrate the efficacy of management strategies that work within the cultural context. A conservation effort over two decades by the nonprofit Quebec-Labrador Foundation (QLF), in collaboration with the Canadian Wildlife Service and local communities, involves a balance of research, education, enforcement, and habitat protection. A longitudinal study has tracked changes in local knowledge, attitudes, and hunting behavior concomitant with increases in seabird populations.

Direct exploitation and disturbance on the breeding grounds caused dramatic population declines for more than a dozen species of seabirds during the period 1955-1978. The numbers of Razorbill, Alca torda, and Atlantic Puffin, Fratercula arctica, dropped from about 18,500 to 3000 (-84%) and 62,000 to 15,000 (-76%) individuals, respectively. Population decreases also occurred among Common Eider, Somateria mollissima, Common Murre, Uria aalge, and Black Guillemot, Cepphus grylle (Chapdelaine 1980). The population declines occurred on federal migratory bird sanctuaries, established in 1925. The declines were linked to the local culture's semi-subsistence relationship to seabirds. Results of a household survey by QLF in 1981 showed that 95% of households considered the harvest of seabirds for food as acceptable. The eggs, young, or adults of all breeding alcids, Common Eider, and most species of gulls and terns were harvested illegally (Blanchard 1984).

The successful management of seabird populations is dependent upon the formulation of relevant policy that stems from an understanding of both the biological and human factors and their interactions that shape, define, or affect the environmental and cultural systems (Blanchard and Nettleship 1992). Cultural and economic factors must be identified and the linkages with biological processes understood. The effective long-term approach to management is to build a collaborative strategy around the local culture's concept of conservation.

The project focuses on the eastern section of the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, known as the Lower North Shore of Quebec. The 400-km coastline comprises 15 villages with a total population of fewer than 6000 people. The region is relatively isolated, only a few communities are linked by roads, and the economy is overwhelmingly fishery-dependent. Since the advent of electricity during the 1960s, hunting seabirds or gathering eggs is no longer crucial to life-support or to meeting vital food needs. However, the acquisition, preparation, and consumption of seabirds are still important traditional activities, which generate feelings of cultural identity, pride, and self-worth.

QLF conducted research into the root causes of the problem, a process that included abundant community consultation and discussion. Following the research, we modified the management objective to reflect a common goal of both the culture and the management agency: to restore depleted seabird populations while preserving the integrity of the local culture. The culture included a norm that stated it was wrong to take more birds than needed. This key element formed the basis of a management plan and education strategy.

There were three desired outcomes of the new plan: increased population levels for seabirds breeding in sanctuaries; sustained improvements in local knowledge, attitudes, and behavior towards seabirds; and greater local involvement in the management process. Over the years, we planned, conducted, and evaluated a series of community-based educational strategies that worked with existing group norms, patterns of communication, opinion leaders, and other aspect of the local culture. Through the Canadian Wildlife Service, we encouraged modifications to the enforcement program, such as the hiring and training of former "poachers" as law enforcement officers. To facilitate greater local participation in management, we created jobs and provided skills training in wildlife research and interpretation. Together we built bird blinds, boardwalks, and interpretive signs. School and nonformal programs, study tours, poster contests, community events, and documentary television and radio programs communicated the conservation message to all age groups and helped build a broad base of support. As local leadership realized the potential value of their seabird colonies to community economic development, they set out to build an appropriate infrastructure for ecotourism.

In communities where people were hostile to conservation agents, we used nonthreatening intervention techniques, such as a community play for children about the biology of seabirds. The actors, who were the sons and daughters of the individuals causing the most damage to the seabird colonies, practiced their lines at home, thus provoking the interest of their parents, who immediately backed off from disturbing the local puffin colony. Of the various educational strategies used, the one cited by the people of the coast as most effective was a conservation camp for children at a remote seabird sanctuary. Over a period of several days, children gained first-hand knowledge of field biology and practical management, which culminated in observing nesting seabirds close-up. Upon returning to their families, these children, filled with pride over their newly acquired knowledge, surprised their parents and siblings by sparking discussions about the need for conservation. The parents have continued to support the program, and the children have become a new generation of conservation-minded citizens.

By 1988 the management plan had achieved all of its major aims and, since then, its efficacy has improved with increasing cooperation among all parties. Populations of several seabird species increased dramatically. For example, Razorbill increased from 3600 to 7000 and Atlantic Puffin from 15,200 to 35,100 individuals. Common Murre increased from 10,200 to 26,000 and Common Eider from 3000 to 8500 individuals (Chapdelaine and Brousseau 1991). Another government-sponsored census in 1993 showed continued increases for each of these species.

Results from a follow-up survey of households in 1988 showed significant changes in consumptive use between 1981 and 1988. For example, the proportion of respondents that believed it should be legal to hunt Razorbill, Common Murre, and Atlantic Puffin fell from 59% to 38%, 76% to 65%, and 54% to 27%, respectively (Blanchard 1994). Further changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior were evidenced by another household survey in 1995. For example, the mean number of birds harvested per family each year dropped from 44 in 1981 to 24 in 1988 and to 14 in 1995 (Blanchard 1994; Hull and Blanchard, unpublished data). Local knowledge, attitudes, and behavior towards seabirds changed significantly (Blanchard 1994). Without the educational intervention and a management approach that worked within the cultural context, the old management effort likely would have failed in the long term. The campaign to change knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors was woven into the web of the local culture, and the success of the program belongs in large part to the culture itself.

Literature Cited

Blanchard, K. A. 1984. Seabird harvest and the importance of education in seabird management on the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Ph.D. thesis. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Blanchard, K. A. 1994. Culture and seabird conservation: the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada. Pages 294-310 in D. N. Nettleship, J. Burger, and M. Gochfeld, editors. Seabirds on islands: threats, case studies, and action plans. BirdLife International Conservation Series No. 1, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Blanchard, K. A., and D. N. Nettleship. 1992. Education and seabird conservation: a conceptural framework. Pages 616-632 in D. R. McCullough and R. H. Barrett, editors. Wildlife 2001: populations. Elsevier, London.

Chapdelaine, G. 1980. Onzieme inventaire et analyse des fluctuations des populations d'oiseaux marins dans les refuges de la Cote Nord du golfe Sainte-Laurent. Canadian Field-Naturalist 94:34-42.

Chapdelaine, G., and P. Brousseau. 1991. Thirteenth census of seabird populations in the sanctuaries of the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 1982-1988. Canadian Field-Naturalist 105:60-66.

Kathleen A. Blanchard and the Quebec-Labrador Foundation received a 1998 Distinguished Service Award for comprehensive education efforts involving conservation of seabirds and their habitats in the North Atlantic. The QLF offices are located in Ipswich, Massachusetts and Montreal, Quebec. Kathleen Blanchard can be reached at kblanchard@QLF.ORG.

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