Sustainable Hunting of Migratory Waterbirds: New Principles from the Waterfowlers’ Network 2nd May 2026

Text & photos Lene Midtgaard

The Waterfowlers’ Network, has developed a set of broad sustainability principles aimed at ensuring the long-term viability of migratory waterbird populations and the traditions associated with waterfowling.

At the heart of the initiative is a clear objective: to encourage and facilitate the active contribution of hunters to cross-border management and the sustainable use of huntable waterbird species. Recognizing that migratory birds traverse national boundaries, the Network emphasizes the need for coordinated, flyway-scale approaches grounded in science and shared responsibility.

Addressing pressures on waterbird populations

Many waterbird species are currently under significant pressure due to habitat loss, predation, and declining breeding success along migratory routes. The Waterfowlers’ Network seeks to help reverse these trends by focusing conservation and management efforts on the species and areas most in need. The vision is to secure sustainable waterfowling opportunities for future generations.

To support breeding populations, hunters are encouraged to engage in habitat conservation and management efforts. This includes maintaining and restoring breeding habitats, as well as controlling invasive species such as American mink and raccoon dog. Where legally permitted, the management of native predators may also be necessary to improve breeding success.

Hunters as contributors to knowledge

A central pillar of our principles is the role of hunters as providers of valuable data. The principles highlight the importance of contributing to bird counts, reporting ring recoveries, conducting wing surveys, and submitting bag data. These forms of citizen science are essential for building robust knowledge bases that inform adaptive management strategies.

Read the latest International Wing survey report

A flyway approach

On wintering and migration grounds, Waterfowlers’ Network promotes a flyway-based management perspective. In the absence of fully developed adaptive harvest management systems, hunters are encouraged to adopt species-specific, self-regulating practices based on the best available information.

Ethical hunting practices

The principles underscores the importance of ethical and responsible hunting practices. Hunters are urged to maintain high shooting proficiency to minimize wounding losses, harvest only what they intend to use, and ensure that all shot birds are retrieved promptly and humanely—ideally with the assistance of trained retrieving dogs.

Through these sustainability principles, the Waterfowlers’ Network wish to position hunters as key partners in conservation. By combining traditional knowledge with scientific data collection and responsible practices, this demonstrates how hunting communities can play a vital role in safeguarding migratory waterbirds for the future.

Waterfowlers’ Network - Broad Sustainability Principles

The top priority of Waterfowlers' Network is to encourage and facilitate the contribution of Northwest European hunters to cross-border management and sustainable use of huntable waterbirds. This work includes various efforts, such as the collection of data, promotion of citizen science, and research initiatives that can contribute towards new management plans for huntable species.

Many waterbird species are facing serious habitat loss and suffering from predation, resulting in low breeding success along the flyway. We hope to contribute towards reversing these trends by focusing our efforts on the species most in need and areas of greatest importance.

Our vision is to ensure sustainable waterfowling opportunities for future generations.

Waterfowlers’ Network recommends:

• That hunters contribute to the collection of data:

1. Bird counts
2. Ring recovery reporting
3. Wing surveys
4. Bag data

• That hunters should avoid disturbance that impacts on waterbirds to an extent that there is a:

1. change in local distribution on a continuing basis; and/or
2. change in local abundance on a sustained basis; and/or
3. reduced ability of any significant group of birds to survive, breed, or rear their young

• That hunters help support the breeding population by:

1. Working towards a national focus on breeding habitat within individual range states
2. Engaging in the removal of non-native and invasive species. (e.g., American mink and raccoon dog) on breeding grounds and on the flyway.
3. Managing or minimising, through legal means, predation from native pests and predators (e.g., foxes, corvids, and badgers) mainly on breeding grounds.
4. Engaging in the creation, maintenance, and enhancement of habitats on breeding grounds

• That hunters help support species on wintering and passage grounds by:

1. Working towards a flyway approach to management. In the absence of a formal framework for adaptive harvest management, advancing species specific, self-regulative recommendations using the best available information
2. Not feed wild ducks, due to the risk of population-level effects

• That hunters follow best practice principles and:

1. Maintain their shooting skills to reduce the risk of crippling
2. Only shoot what you will eat. The Waterfowlers’ Network recognises that a larger harvest may be required for management or crop protection purposes
3. Have access to a suitable retrieving dog, so birds can be recovered and, if necessary, quickly and humanely dispatched