Abstract:
: In addition to scoping the impacts of the four most reported sources of recreational
disturbance on shorebirds, this study also advances the concept of Tropical Asia (TA) to
collectively describe tourist destinations in the ecologically and geopolitically diverse part
of the planet that incorporates the tourism megaregion of South and Southeast Asia. At
a time of growing global concern about the rapid decline of shorebird populations, many
governments in TA are embracing and capitalising on the exponential growth in demand
for coastal recreation and tourism across the region. This political response is partly driven
by efforts to deliver economic development, aligned to the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals, in order to secure the livelihoods of people living in less developed
coastal areas. However, the rapid increase in visitor numbers and the development of
infrastructure to support the booming demand for coastal tourism destinations in TA are
further exacerbating the pressures on shorebird populations across the region. Despite
these growing pressures and the wealth of research reporting on shorebird populations
across the Asian flyways, this scoping study identified surprisingly little research that reports
on the recreational disturbance (RD) of shorebirds in TA. While undertaken to inform future
research, this study also provides a synthesis of management strategies reported in the
global literature into a set of management recommendations for coastal destinations in TA.
