NAWMP

History:
1985 marked a time where there was a sudden realization of decreasing waterfowl populations. Approximately 53% of wetlands across the United States of America had dissipated, meaning critical habitat for many animals and in Canada, 29% had been degraded or destroyed.  Hunters saw this tragic downfall and decided to make a stand by taxing themselves to protect these creatures as well as reducing the harvest limit. From these decided actions, the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) in 1986.  In 1986, Canada and United States of America came up with NAWMP. In 1994, Mexico joined in the conservation act, making this management plan for North American truly encompass the whole country. So far, there has been 1.5 billion dollars to conserve 2 million hectares of land in North America. It is considered "... one of the most successful conservation initiatives in the world."

Current Day Features:

• Monitoring waterfowl populations (they do this by flying in planes over the flyways and counting the population numbers - their estimates are to graphs to the right with various species)
• Assessing habitats (wetlands, grasslands etc.)
• Harvest rates
• Scientific approach to waterfowl habitat management and restoration

Habitat Joint Ventures

• Certain geographic regions in the North America create plans for their localized wetlands
• Maximize financial and organizational aspects of creating a sustainable area locally.
• Here are a few joint ventures for the Prairie Pothole Region (one exists in Canada, and one exists in USA): 

North America Wetlands Conservation Act

In 1989, the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) was established under NAWMP. This program allows individuals and organizations in Canada, United State of America, and Mexico to propose projects and receive grants from the NAWCA in order to conserve the wetlands on the North American continent. The program matches whatever the organization is able to put in. Thus far, there has been 2067 projects done, 1.1 billion dollars spent on conservation of wetlands (just from NAWCA) and approximately 26.5 million acres have been enriched. In 2012 alone, $18.5 million was allotted to various wetland conservation projects. Not only do these wetland projects conserve waterfowl, but the waterfowl act as an umbrella species to all wetland species. 

Adaptive Harvest Management:
What is it? If a population of currently abundant waterfowl species declines, then the managers will be able to inform the hunters that it is no longer to collect the waterfowl of interest, or at least put a decrease on the bag limit. Flexibility is key when it comes to managing waterfowl. Yearly, the harvest rates for each species are overlooked to ensure sustainable take limits are being implemented.

This website hosts a few videos that talk about adaptive harvest management. Basically, waterfowl populations are dynamic. Having an adaptive harvest management strategy for the hunters to abide by is essential if there is a decrease in populations and the bag limit needs to be decreased as well.