Delivering conservation programs across large regions and with multiple partners requires scientific planning tools that incorporate variation in multiple values and the costs of delivering programs

The U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service awarded a $223,000 Project Grant under the Migratory Bird Joint Ventures program (CFDA 15.637) to Ducks Unlimited Canada. The grant will be used to update and build additional components for the Eastern Habitat Joint Venture's decision support tool, which guides strategic habitat conservation to provide habitat to support waterfowl, biodiversity, and society across large regions. The project aims to incorporate new data and adapt the tool to changing socioeconomic influences in order to improve how funds are allocated to maximize the return on investment for habitat conservation efforts. Key partners in the Eastern Habitat Joint Venture include Ducks Unlimited Canada and the Nature Conservancy of Canada, who will work to develop a single co-designed decision support tool to complement their individual organizational tools and improve the coordination of habitat conservation programs.

The joint venture model in north america has been massively successful at developing strategic plans coordinating funds and then delivering largescale conservation programs for waterfowl and many cobenefits. However decision support tools require regular updates to add new data and to adapt to changing socioeconomic influences on programs. We will update and build additional components for the eastern habitat joint ventures decision support tool to guide strategic habitat conservation. This information will guide regional conservation that provides habitat to support waterfowl biodiversity and society. The two largest habitat delivery partners in the ehjv are ducks unlimited canada and the nature conservancy of canada. Ducks unlimited canada has existing decision support tools that are being used in the prairie habitat joint venture based on waterfowl productivity however this resolution of information i.e. large scale nesting ecology studies is not available in eastern canada. Current waterfowl prioritization tools used by DUC in the ehjv are based on waterfowl pair abundance information and the cost of conservation however the level of information varies provincially. NCC has existing decision support tools of where to work that can be adapted to any region in canada. In the ehjv the difference in prioritization frameworks primarily reflects organization specific values and goals. Incorporating information on abundance of priority species such as the american black duck anas rubripes can improve the link between population objectives of joint ventures to habitat objectives a key monitoring metric for the north american waterfowl management plan committee. A single codesigned decision support tool for ehjv partners will complement partner specific tools and improve how ehjv funds are allocated to maximize the return on investment for habitat conservation.