Attitudes towards the reintroduction of the chough to Kent

Executive Summary:
The red-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) has been absent from Kent for around 200 years (Bullock, et al., 1983), but is planned to be reintroduced to the Dover White Cliffs area in Summer 2022.

The IUCNs guidelines for Reintroductions state that to establish a viable, free-ranging population in the wild it
is necessary to enlist public support (IUCN, 2013). Inevitably, the long-term success of reintroductions and
wildlife conservation programmes depends on people’s attitudes towards individual species and wildlife in general. Therefore, an understanding of the attitudes of varied sectors of society is essential in the planning the return of long-lost species native to the UK (Consorte-McCrea 2022; Consorte-McCrea et al. 2017).

This report is based on a number of focus groups and interviews across different interest groups to explore how members of these different groups relate to the chough, its conservation, reintroduction and management of populations.
Participants who were members of the general public illustrated limited knowledge, which highlights a potentially important engagement opportunity for KWT.

Any engagement strategies by KWT will also need to take into account how busy people are (something picked up across participants) and identify who might be best to target. There was a firm believe that some people will never be on board, and that efforts should focus on the majority of people who will be interested and can be motivated. Participants brainstormed a range of engagement activities, from sponsorship schemes to merchandise to educational activities. It is important that information is provided in easy to access ways for different demographics, using for example, local newspapers, community centres and social media to reach
different groups on a large scale.

The participants who belonged to the general public reported being less critical and more supportive of reintroduction projects more generally, and the chough reintroduction more specifically, than were participants who belonged to landowners or wildlife organisations. However, they did express some uncertainty about the project, mainly due to lack of knowledge of it, e.g. they were unable to judge the value of it to the local countryside.

Participants from wildlife and statutory groups stressed the value given to scientific research amongst their peers, and associated support for the reintroduction with assurance that reintroduction guidance and ecological feasibility research have been met.

Participants across groups identified a range of barriers and opportunities regarding the reintroduction.
They identified i.e. barriers such as the potential of human threat, threat from existing wildlife, as well as concerns around the impact of the chough on existing wildlife, especially current red list birds.

Regarding opportunities, participants identified i.e. a general support for reintroductions, the benefit of the
bird as flagship species and for promoting tourism in the area, benefits from collaboration across agencies for
biodiversity conservation.

Participants discussed how people’s interaction with the countryside has changed and that knowledge about, for example, nature and specifically the countryside code has been lost. Also, participants discussed that beside parents, organisations such as schools or the Scouts, could be important for ensuring this lost knowledge is relearned.