National Survey of Birdwatchers

The 2012 NAWMP Revision Vision Statement provides a new vision of waterfowl management that emphasizes a growing and supportive core of waterfowl hunters and an engaged conservation community inspired by waterfowl and wetlands. The goal is to have a public supportive of waterfowl and wetlands conservation that have strong emotional and pragmatic ties to waterfowl and wetlands.

To facilitate engagement of both the traditional waterfowl hunting community and other nontraditional stakeholder groups who are interested in waterfowl and the conservation of waterfowl and wetlands, the NFC’s Human Dimensions Working Group and other NAWMP partners conducted a research study using both stakeholder and general public surveys of North Americans that can inform: 1) NAWMP objectives; 2) harvest objectives and strategies; 3) habitat management; and 4) public engagement strategies.

The purpose of the NAWMP Birdwatcher survey included: 1) identifying the key attributes important to birding experiences; 2) assessing the knowledge, preferences, levels of use and support for waterfowl and wetlands conservation; 3) assessing importance of ecological goods and services provided by wetlands; 4) assessing decisions to participate in birdwatching and level of identity as birdwatcher, hunter and conservationist; and 5) examining the social, political, economic and human capital capacity for conserving waterfowl and wetlands.

 

The National Report is completed and available below along with the Flyway Reports, and a survey highlights/preliminary results PowerPoint from the FoW2 Workshop can be found here.