Â鶹ÒùÔº

Like millions of people, we have experienced the physical and mental health benefits, as well as the simple enjoyment, of a daily dog walk. However, amid the UK's growing population of dogs (around ), recent have highlighted growing concern about how dogs affect wildlife and ecosystems.

Potential issues include , spreading of diseases , and .

By collaborating with more than 40 organizations from the Wildlife Trusts to the Dogs Trust, we have created to explain and help manage the effects of dog walking on biodiversity, based on current evidence.

The , a research collaboration between the University of Exeter and the National Trust, takes a "people in nature" approach to address complex challenges like this. We reviewed the existing scientific literature and mapped the relationship between current dog densities and England's protected habitats.

We found that dog walking can have negative environmental consequences, including substantial effects of disturbance, pollution and disease in some places.

We then with specialists in dog behavior, biodiversity conservation and land management. We explored what dog walkers and landowners can do to minimize the disturbance of wildlife and ecosystems, while still enabling public access to natural spaces for people and their dogs.

One of our key findings was that different organizations and landowners take very different approaches to managing dog walking on their sites, which is inconsistent and can be confusing for dog walkers. There are also multiple voluntary codes for responsible dog walking, including , the Kennel Club's , the National Trust's , and Forestry England's .

While these codes often share central principles, they differ in specific guidance and level of detail. To address this, land managers could take a more standardized approach to managing dog walking—based on a shared code for dog walkers, and different zones of access for land managers.

We recommend such a zoning approach should employ a traffic-light system, . Green zones would welcome dogs without restriction and ideally provide dog-friendly facilities.

Amber zones would require "paws on paths" (that is, keeping dogs on marked trails) and, in the presence of livestock, dogs on leads. Red zones would indicate sensitive sites in which dogs aren't allowed, such as areas of lowland heath where birds nest on the ground or beaches where young seal pups are resting.

Zone colors might change depending on the time of year—this is already common on beaches, which often have seasonal dog restrictions. As long as the signage is clear, our idea is that wherever a dog walker finds themselves, they will know what is expected of them.

More zones, less disturbance

Some organizations and sites, including and the Holkham Hall estate in Norfolk, already use zoning approaches . But as was recently demonstrated by the on Dartmoor, public access to land is a sensitive topic in the UK. Restrictions meet resistance because they can impinge on what for many is considered a basic freedom—to access the outdoors with one's dog.

Consequently, meaningful engagement with dog owners and local communities when designing zoning is vital. Perhaps counterintuitively, simply increasing restrictions on access to land may actually exacerbate disturbance from dog walking, as people, dogs and protected areas become crowded together in the same landscapes.

A zoning approach that also involves creating new green pawprint zones for off-lead dog walking, where access elsewhere is restricted, would ensure that no access to wild places is lost overall.

The effects of dog walking on the environment are linked to broader social and cultural factors, including people's knowledge and skills when it comes to managing their dogs' behavior. But other factors include the availability of facilities such as dog poo bins, and the widespread use of "spot-on" —pesticides that are and can contaminate the environment more than medication given orally.

In our , the research team found that emphasizing how the health of people, animals and ecosystems are all interconnected resonated with our participants more than focusing on wildlife protection alone.

Dogs are vital companions for many of us—but unfortunately, their presence and behavior can cause problems for other species. Rather than demonizing dogs and their owners as environmental threats, collaborative, evidence-based approaches can help create accessible spaces for people, dogs and wildlife.

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .