1. What is the Grouse Specialist Group?

The GSG is a global voluntary network of persons professionally involved in the study, conservation, and sustainable management of grouse. It is particularly concerned with the conservation of threatened grouse species, subspecies, and populations in seeking ways to maintain viable populations in their natural habitats.

The GSG operates under the joint authority of the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), BirdLife International, and the World Pheasant Association (WPA) . Its mission is consistent with the aims of all three of its parent bodies:

The GSG is committed to understanding and securing viable populations of all species and subspecies of grouse in their natural habitats.

The GSG was officially founded in 1993. By early 2005, the GSG had 130 registered members from 30 countries in Eurasia and North America.

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2. Background and Objectives

Grouse have long attracted and fascinated people. Their display behaviour, and particularly the communal mating grounds, or "leks", of the capercaillie, the black grouse, and the prairie grouse, have inspired poetry and folklore in Eurasia as well as North America. Perhaps even more importantly, grouse hunting has played a major role in the subsistence, economy, and culture of local communities. Grouse also show many features interesting to scientists. In fact, grouse are among the best-studied bird taxa worldwide.
Grouse mating systems have been studied to develop theories of sexual selection and evolution. Grouse population cycles remain a major puzzle for population ecologists. Grouse were part of the first studies of habitat fragmentation and landscape ecology. Those studies have opened our eyes to the great influences the wider surroundings can have on the habitat and dynamics of grouse and other wildlife species.

Today, three of the 18 species of grouse are considered threatened with extinction, three are considered near-threathened, and one is data-deficient (IUCN 2004). Most species of grouse have lost parts of their ranges, show negative trends, and many local populations have gone extinct. The major threat to grouse is in man-made changes of the habitat. Grouse play an important role for conservation: as typical representatives of a wide spectrum of natural habitats, grouse are indicators of ecosystem health. Their indicator function and their attractiveness to people make grouse excellent flagship species to promote conservation. In that sense, grouse conservation is conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity in general.

The GSG is working along these lines. Securing viable populations of all species and subspecies of grouse in the wild, and thereby promoting the idea of biodiversity conservation, is the GSG´s major goal.
The GSG is working towards its goal though a set of linked objectives.
The major ones are these:

• Maintaining a global network of grouse specialists
• Assessing the conservation status of all Grouse species, using the IUCN Red List
• Publishing Action Plans every five years to detail information on threatened species and outline a programme of priority projects
• Publishing a newsletter (Grouse News) twice each year
• Organisation of symposia and workshops
• Promoting and implementing grouse conservation action
• Giving advice and to assist with fundraising for projects

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3. Operation

General guidelines on the responsibilities and operation of Specialist Groups are set out on the SSC website, and more details are given in the Terms of Reference issued to all Specialist Group Chairs in May 2000.

Because the GSG operates with the authority of three parent bodies, agreements have been set up to clarify responsibilities.

A Memorandum of Understanding (23.01.1997) between SSC and BirdLife gives BirdLife global authority on the conservation status of birds, and consequent responsibility for maintaining the Red List of threatened bird species, in collaboration with all bird SGs and its world wide partnership. Another Memorandum of Understanding (14.09.2000) between SSC and WPA acknowledges WPA's lead role in Galliformes species conservation and recognises the five Galliformes SGs as the primary source of information on the conservation status of these birds. It delegates day-to-day management of these SGs to WPA, but requires the appointment of their Chairs to be agreed jointly between SSC, BirdLife and WPA. WPA is expected to assist the SGs in the implementation of the priority projects identified in their Action Plans, and in the revision of the Action Plans every five years. SSC is expected to ensure publication of new Action Plan editions in the IUCN series, sharing the publication rights with WPA.

The GSG operates through a Chairperson and a core committee

Links updated 28th June 2008

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