Seabirds and climate change in North‐West Europe: Identifying opportunities for an effective and efficient conservation response

Abstract

AbstractClimate change poses a massive and growing threat to wildlife. Calls are growing for coordinated and collaborative responses to conserve species threatened by climate change, but how this works in practice remains largely unexplored. Focusing on seabirds in North‐West Europe, we carried out 32 semi‐structured stakeholder interviews to (1) explore existing conservation work linked to climate change, (2) identify barriers to work on climate change among conservation actors, and (3) identify key conservation actors and characterize their interactions. Interviewees identified a range of research, policy, and practical conservation work for seabirds related—directly or indirectly—to climate change. They highlighted the importance of general conservation work to facilitate seabird adaptation to climate change, and global mitigation of climate change (e.g., through decarbonization and ecosystem restoration). Interviewees identified several barriers to conservation work explicitly addressing climate change, pertaining to information, leadership, resources, and values/beliefs. We discovered that seabird conservation networks are generally well‐established and harmonious, but not tension‐free. There are also some misunderstandings over actor responsibilities that could lead to bystander effects. We present suggestions to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of seabird conservation in response to climate change.