Action

Build artificial bird perches to encourage seed dispersal

How is the evidence assessed?
  • Effectiveness
    20%
  • Certainty
    20%
  • Harms
    1%

Study locations

Key messages

  • One study evaluated the effects on peatland vegetation of building artificial bird perches. The study was in a tropical peat swamp.
  • Vegetation cover (1 study): One replicated, paired, controlled study in a peat swamp forest in Indonesia found that artificial bird perches had no significant effect on seedling abundance.

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

  1. A replicated, paired, controlled study in 2007–2008 in a degraded, burned, peat swamp forest in Kalimantan, Indonesia (Graham et al. 2011) found that installing artificial bird perches along a forest edge had no effect on tree seedling abundance. After one year, seedling density was not significantly different under artificial perches (2–6 seedlings/m2) and in adjacent plots not under perches (1–2 seedlings/m2). Most seedlings under the perches were tampohot Syzygium sp. (79% of all seedlings). In July 2007, ten 8 m tall artificial bird perches were erected in logged and burned peatland, 50 to 200 m from the edge of a remnant forest patch. Two 1 m2 plots were monitored for each perch: one directly underneath the perch and one next to it. All seedlings initially present were marked. In July 2008, new tree seedlings were counted.

    Study and other actions tested
Please cite as:

Taylor, N.G., Grillas, P. & Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Peatland Conservation. Pages 367-430 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

All the journals searched for all synopses

Peatland Conservation

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Peatland Conservation
Peatland Conservation

Peatland Conservation - Published 2018

Peatland Conservation

What Works 2021 cover

What Works in Conservation

What Works in Conservation provides expert assessments of the effectiveness of actions, based on summarised evidence, in synopses. Subjects covered so far include amphibians, birds, mammals, forests, peatland and control of freshwater invasive species. More are in progress.

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