Goose and Swan Monitoring Programme

Project Aims The Goose and Swan Monitoring Programme (GSMP) aims to deliver population estimates and trends both at UK and at site level, in order to assess the status of geese and swans wintering in the UK.

It also provides data and information about those demographic factors (e.g. breeding success) driving those trends: information that informs conservation action.

The outputs will help JNCC and other parts of government to fulfil statutory and international obligations for the conservation of wild birds, and the sites and habitats on which they depend.

Data may also be used for adaptive management purposes, informing decisions regarding adaptation of populations to agreed target sizes - agreed within international frameworks as appropriate.

Project Background The UK supports fourteen populations of geese and migratory swans, and for seven, the UK has particular responsibility as most of the population winters in the UK, or stops-over on migration.

The GSMP includes surveys to monitor these populations, collecting data on abundance and demography (e.g. annual productivity as expressed by proportion of young in winter flocks).

The species GSMP collects data on are those for which data is most important for conservation and management purposes (listed in the table in section 5).

The GSMP has been a partnership between JNCC, SNH and WWT for many years.

WWT coordinates surveys primarily through their relationship with a volunteer network.

The data collected are important for assessing both the biological and conservation status of geese and swans and guiding conservation action.

Data from the GSMP are fed into the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) database, and hence GSMP has linkages to the JNCC, WWT, BTO and RSPB partnership delivering WeBS.

In the future, the work of GSMP will also be linked to a planned project providing cross-taxon support for analysis and development.