Mapping the conflict of raptor conservation and recreational shooting in the Batumi Bottleneck, Republic of Georgia

Illegal use of natural resources threatens biodiversity and often leads to conservation conflicts between affected parties. Such a conflict is emerging in the Batumi Bottleneck in the Republic of Georgia, where every autumn... [ view full abstract ]

Illegal use of natural resources threatens biodiversity and often leads to conservation conflicts between affected parties. Such a conflict is emerging in the Batumi Bottleneck in the Republic of Georgia, where every autumn more than one million migrating birds of prey funnel above a handful of villages. This spectacle attracts not only birdwatchers and ornithologists from around the world, but also local people with shotguns. Knowledge about the illegal autumn hunting of raptors here is still emerging, and there is no appropriate policy and practice in place to manage the situation. As a first step towards resolving this conflict, utilising semi-structured interviews, we mapped the goals and opinions of relevant stakeholders associated with raptor migration in the bottleneck. Our results show that most stakeholders, except some local hunters, are on common ground considering the shooting unacceptable, but articulate different preferences concerning a solution, which hinged on issues of institutional and enforcement issues. The responses of many interviewed hunters diverged greatly from those of other stakeholders, and were analysed separately in more depth. We found that hunters (1) largely see raptor hunting as a source of amusement and food; (2) distinguish raptors only on higher taxonomic groups, and not on species level; and (3) prioritise shooting larger and/or lighter coloured birds. The most urgent issues to be addressed via conservation actions are the wide scale lack of awareness of the conflict, the potential loss of species, and the risk of conflict escalation.