Taiga bean goose: Harvest assessment for the Central Management Unit: 2018

In 2016 the European Goose Management International Working Group (EGM IWG) began development of an adaptive harvest management program for Taiga Bean Geese (TBG). In 2017, the EGM IWG adopted an interim harvest strategy consisting of a constant harvest rate (on adults) of 3% for the Central Management of Taiga Bean Geese. The interim strategy is intended to provide limited hunting opportunity while rebuilding the population. Recent efforts have involved development of a dynamic strategy in which the harvest rate can vary each year with changes in population size, and in which multiple, possibly competing, management objectives can be addressed. This report provides examples of dynamic harvest strategies and compares them with the interim, constant harvest-rate strategy. Until such time that a dynamic strategy is adopted by the EGM IWG, the annual harvest quota and its allocation among Range States is predicated on the interim strategy. Based on a January count of 38,717, the harvest quota for the 2018 hunting season is 1,610 Taiga Bean Geese (compared to 2,335 for the 2017 season). We emphasize that these quotas include both harvest during the regular season and derogation shooting. We acknowledge that the January 2018 count of Taiga Bean Geese in the Central Management Unit was likely biased low, as counts in the autumn and spring in Sweden were higher. Additionally, the size of the harvest during the fall and winter of 2017-18 is unknown, due to an inability to differentiate taiga and Tundra Bean Geese in the harvest, compilation of data too late to be used in this report, and a lack of reporting. Because of problems with both the population and harvest monitoring programs it is difficult to estimate a harvest quota for 2018 with any degree of confidence.