Harvest assessment for Taiga bean geese in the Central Management Unit: 2019

In 2016 the European Goose Management International Working Group (EGM IWG) began development of an Adaptive Harvest Management (AHM) program for Taiga Bean Geese. In 2017, the IWG adopted an Interim Harvest Strategy consisting of a constant harvest rate (on adults) of 3% for the Central Management Unit (MU) of Taiga Bean Geese. The interim strategy is intended to provide limited hunting opportunity while rebuilding the population. Based on a January count of 41,927, the harvest quota for the 2019 hunting season is 1,740 Taiga Bean Geese (compared to 2,335 and 1,610 for the 2017 and 2018 seasons, respectively). We emphasize that these quotas include both, harvest during the regular season and derogation shooting. Going forward, we describe how an Integrated Population Model (IPM) will use counts at multiple times during the year, along with other demographic information, to estimate population size (and its precision). The IPM can be used to develop an adaptive harvest strategy if unambiguous management objectives can be agreed upon. We provide some initial guidance for formulating those objectives.