This report addresses one of the most fundamental debates in waterfowl policy and management -- the relative roles of habitat conservation and harvest regulation. The original framers of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (Plan) recognized the inherent linkages among harvest, habitat, and hunters. The Plan set the stage for the next two decades of waterfowl conservation, during which managers demonstrated a capacity to deliver habitat initiatives through joint ventures, developed a technical framework for harvest management, and became increasingly aware of the role of stakeholders, especially hunters. To date, however, the waterfowl management community has not explicitly integrated these elements under a cohesive framework. This integration will require identification of meaningful, measurable goals that integrate habitat conservation, harvest management, and stakeholder support.
...Considerable technical work will be required to integrate uncertainties about habitat and harvest management. Pursuit of a unified framework for waterfowl management at the continental scale must include additional elements, particularly the incorporation of stakeholder desires, clarification of key ecological uncertainties such as the functional form of density dependence, and models that link local habitat management with continental waterfowl demography