The North American Waterfowl Management Plan, released in May 1986, served as a cooperative strategy between Canada and the United States to conserve ducks, geese, and swans across the continent, emphasizing the protection and restoration of wetlands amid ongoing habitat loss from agriculture, urbanization, and other human activities.

It established key principles, such as prioritizing habitat maintenance, managing subpopulations, and supporting managed harvests while fostering joint ventures for funding. The plan detailed the status of 29 duck species, dividing them into dabbling, diving, and sea ducks, and noted declines in populations like mallards, pintails, and black ducks due to habitat degradation and drought. It also assessed geese and swans, identifying 27 goose populations and setting specific recovery goals for declining ones, such as the Aleutian Canada goose.

Habitat priorities focused on reversing losses in prairie potholes, boreal forests, and migration/wintering areas, with goals to protect millions of acres by 2000 to support a breeding duck population of 62 million and a fall flight exceeding 100 million. 

Recommendations included stabilizing hunting regulations with prescriptive restrictions for low populations, developing management plans for at-risk geese and swans, expanding subsistence surveys, and enhancing research on harvest impacts and contaminants. Implementation relied on national, flyway, and joint-venture plans, overseen by a newly formed committee to ensure ongoing updates. This original plan has been updated several times, in 1994, 1998, 2004, 2012, 2014, 2018, and 2024.