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A decision-analytical framework for developing harvest regulations

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Edited by: Kevin L. Pope and Larkin A. Powell
https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003009054

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Abstract

The development of harvest regulations for fish or wildlife is a complex decision that needs to weigh multiple objectives, consider a set of alternative regulatory options, integrate scientific understanding about the population dynamics of the harvested species as well as the human response to regulations, account for uncertainty, and provide an avenue for feedback from monitoring programs. The author describes how the field of decision analysis provides a framework for structuring such decisions and tools for navigating the components. At the center of any harvest management endeavor is a set of objectives that may include providing harvest opportunity, conserving the harvested population long into the future, and satisfying hunters, anglers, or trappers; tools from multi-criteria decision analysis are useful in finding the right balance among competing objectives. The population dynamics of harvested populations are often stochastic; tools from risk analysis and dynamic optimization can be used to find state-dependent policies that manage variation. Finally, harvest regulations are often set in the face of uncertainty; value-of-information methods can be used to evaluate the importance of that uncertainty, and adaptive management methods can be used to reduce it.

Publication type Book chapter
Publication Subtype Book Chapter
Title A decision-analytical framework for developing harvest regulations
Chapter 7
DOI 10.1201/9781003009054
Year Published 2021
Language English
Publisher CRC Press
Contributing office(s) Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Eastern Ecological Science Center
Description 15 p.
Larger Work Type Book
Larger Work Subtype Monograph
Larger Work Title Harvest of fish and wildlife: New paradigms for sustainable management
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