9th meeting of the AEWA European Goose Management Platform
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Waterbirds
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Wetland Biodiversity
The 9th European Goose Management Platform (EGMP) meeting concluded today in Tromso, Norway.
The EGMP is pioneering the adaptive management of European waterbird populations under the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA). Its work covers goose species with either recovery objectives (e.g., the Taiga Bean Goose) or population control objectives (e.g., the Pink-footed, Greylag, and Barnacle Geese). Wetlands International has actively engaged with the work of the EGMP since its inception.
Its staff has contributed to developing many of the action and management plans, the management decisions for the Greylag Goose rely on the data from the International Waterbird Census coordinated by Wetlands International Europe. Over the years, the work under the EGMP has helped to recover the population of the Finnish–Western Russian breeding population of the Taiga Bean Goose to the target level and managed to stem the further increase of the Pink-footed, the Russian Barnacle and the Northwest/Southwest European population of the Greylag Goose.
The adaptive harvest management framework provided by the EGMP has been proven useful in detecting that the Greenland population of the Barnacle Goose is approaching the favourable reference population level as a combined effect of negative ecological changes (high and fluctuating natural mortality rates, low reproduction rates), the relatively high level of legal hunting in Iceland, and derogation shooting in Scotland. Parties have agreed to significantly reduce the hunting and derogation in these two countries before the coming hunting season. This would not have been impossible without the rigorous monitoring, assessment and collaborative decision-making framework provided by the AEWA EGMP.
Photo: Sergey Dereliev