Working Group on Population Management

Population management as a general problem has three main aspects: conservation , harvesting and control. In the first, a manager is interested in increasing the size of a population that is declining to extinction; in the second, the aim is to maintain the size of a population of an exploited species at a productive level; and in the last, to cause a decrease in the numbers of a pest. The common thread is the regulation of population size and growth rate under some management regime. Yet, in spite of this, these goals are often thought about as separate issues (as the proliferation of books on 'conservation' and 'pest control', and the relative inaccessibility of the fisheries management literature will testify). All three areas have developed relatively independently, and have fairly strong theoretical constructs, with conceptual and mathematical models. The differences are great enough that each has something to teach the other. However, it seems that there are a great many commonalities and that the time is right for an examination of the shared theoretical underpinnings, objectives and tools. This proposal, which is for a synthesis as well as more specific cross-field projects, calls for a working group of approximately 12 people (including 5-6 students) representing the three areas of interest to spend four weeks at the NCEAS in July/August of 1997, and for a small follow-up group of 2 people a year later.