Reducing damage to agriculture by migratory geese by means of population control; investigating the use of adaptive organisation of hunting

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A dramatic increase in the sizes of wild goose populations in Europe causes serious conflicts with agricultural interests because geese converge on farmland for feeding. Increasingly, calls for increased hunting pressure to control population sizes as a m eans to mitigate the conflicts are heard; however, current hunting practises and conflicting interests often hinder an efficient use of the wildlife resources. The objective of this project is to develop a framework for co-operative local-based goose hunt ing organisation and co-existence between sustainably managed goose populations and agriculture. The knowledge produced will support and facilitate sustainable agricultural practices as well as strengthen the partnership between farming, hunting, nature m anagement, other stakeholders and local communities. The flexible schemes suggested will be developed on an interdisciplinary basis in close co-operation with local interest groups and management institutions. A region in central Norway, Nord-Trøndelag, w here spring-staging pink-footed geese cause economical loss for farmers, will be the case study. Here, advising knowledge considering population control of pink-footed geese is requested by local farmers and authorities. We evaluate the current hunting pr actice, study the social and economic issues important for the farmers, hunters and authorities in the agriculture-goose conflict, including an organised goose hunt, and assess the motivation by, and feasibility of, the stakeholders entering a system base d on voluntary agreements. We develop spatially-explicit models to predict goose distribution under various regimes of hunting, to inform stakeholders on how organisation of hunting can increase the number of geese potentially harvested, taking stakeholde r interests into account.