Working Groups & Subcommittees

The NAWMP Plan Committee itself has five working groups: The Leadership/Communications/Funding Work Group; the Science Work Group; the Policy Work Group; the NAWMP Awards Committee; and the Communications and Outreach Team. Several working groups and subcommittees support the implementation of the 2012 North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP).

In addition, the following groups work across the waterfowl management community.

Interim Integration Committee
To ensure steady progress and engagement of the major sectors of waterfowl management, the NAWMP Plan Committee's federal co-chairs appointed an Interim Integration Committee (IIC) to provide active leadership in Canada and the United States.

The purpose of the IIC is to advance the integrated management of North American waterfowl populations, harvest, habitat conservation, and associated user and conservation supporters. The IIC reports to the Plan Committee through the committee's federal co-chairs. It focuses on technical assessments and solutions, process and institutional matters, and leadership and marketing efforts related to closer integration.

The IIC pursues critical technical work as required with the established NAWMP working groups: Harvest Management Working Group, National Science Support Team, and Human Dimensions Working Group. The IIC may commission short-term ad hoc technical teams to address specific, unforeseen technical challenges.

Roles of the IIC include:
Serve as a focal point for gathering, vetting and synthesizing ideas from the waterfowl management community and advise on the evolution of integrated management.

In consultation with the flyways, joint ventures and other existing institutions, develop and help implement a process to set explicit, measurable objectives for waterfowl populations, harvest opportunity, habitat conservation, and users and supporters.

Support development of decision-support tools with linkages between suites of objectives at varying spatial and temporal scales, and consider how these tools can be implemented and the administered.

In collaboration with the NSST, HDWG, and HMWG, help develop scale-specific monitoring and assessment approaches to support adaptive implementation of the linked decision frameworks for population, habitat and user/supporter management.

Develop a communication strategy to support continued stakeholder awareness and engagement in the advancement of waterfowl management.

Monitor progress and foster frequent communications between the IIC and the Plan Committee, and support the PC in communicating with other waterfowl management entities.

When the nature of an appropriate integrated technical framework is better defined, begin the task of coordinating a comprehensive, inclusive, international review of the institutional structures and processes in place to conduct waterfowl management.

Human Dimensions Working Group
 Human dimensions of wildlife management - how people value wildlife, how they want wildlife to be managed, and how they affect or are affected by wildlife and wildlife management decisions - are increasingly recognized as critical to waterfowl management and conservation.

These efforts have culminated in a fundamental shift in waterfowl management from treating people as passive recipients of waterfowl population and habitat management, to the focal point of one of the three goals of the 2012 NAWMP Revision (2.6MB): "Growing numbers of waterfowl hunters, other conservationists, and citizens who enjoy and actively support waterfowl and wetlands conservation."

Recognizing that this effort will require sources of scientific and technical support at a level greater than currently available within the waterfowl management community, the Plan Committee formed the Human Dimensions Working Group (HDWG) to provide the scientific and technical support necessary to achieve this new NAWMP Goal.

The HDWG serves in an advisory capacity to the Flyway Councils, joint ventures, the NAWMP Plan Committee, and supporting technical groups by providing scientific and technical guidance for obtaining and incorporating human dimensions information to achieve NAWMP goals and objectives.

Led by its chair (two-year appointment), the Human Dimensions Working Group includes a steering committee, a technical group, and a supporting Human Dimensions Specialists subcommittee. The steering committee provides guidance to the technical group to ensure efforts are focused on priorities identified by NAWMP partners and stakeholders The technical group will identify and prioritize human dimensions technical work that needs to be completed to address steering committee priorities and serve as the liaison to NAWMP supporting technical groups.

The HDWG specialists subcommittee will provide expertise to assist with the integration of social science, communication and marketing perspectives into management actions focused on achieving NAWMP goals and objectives.

Public Engagement Team
The mission of the Public Engagement Team (PET) is to strategically engage key audiences to participate in measurable actions to accomplish the 2012 North American Waterfowl Management Plan's goals and objectives, especially Goal 3.

The PET serves as the primary NAWMP body to develop and recommend adaptive approaches for engaging audiences in active support of plan goals and objectives, as outlined in a public engagement strategy. The team will collaborate with the HDWG to ensure that public engagement efforts are properly informed by appropriate social science research, and coordinate its activities with state, federal, nongovernment and other partners.

Harvest Management Working Group
No description for this group is currently available.