The 2018 Update of NAWMP recognized the key role of this educational foundation and explicitly identified the critical need to maintain and expand educational capacity to ensure existence of an appropriately skilled workforce to meet future conservation challenges. Moreover, the 2018 Update of NAWMP encouraged engaging the public broadly to strengthen societal relevance and demonstrate the benefits. Consequently, the waterfowl community also must recognize and promote values of an inclusive workforce that reflects an increasingly multicultural and diverse North American society, and actively recruit professionals from historically underrepresented backgrounds.
To address these needs, a small team of professionals came together to develop a new strategic initiative under NAWMP: the North American Waterfowl Professional Education Plan (NAWPEP). The goal of this initiative is to assist universities and other NAWMP partners with establishing, sustaining, and enhancing both academic and experiential programs in waterfowl science and management, to sustain professional capacity and excellence.
The strategic plan and other NAWPEP documents are linked here.