A decision-analytical framework for developing harvest regulations

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.