The National Goose Management Review Group (NGMRG) oversees arrangements for monitoring protected geese populations and for undertaking relevant scientific research, and is assisted by a scientific subgroup - the Goose Science Advisory Group (GSAG) which provides advice on monitoring, research and analysis of information on goose populations and related issues. GSAG is chaired by the Scottish Government's Chief Ecological Adviser, and draws its membership from The Scottish Government, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Agriculture Science Agency, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, RSPB Scotland, British Association for Shooting and Conservation and an independent expert ornithologist.
GSAG aims to provide and assess the science on which to judge and manage the local goose schemes. As part of the original management review, population viability analyses (PVAs) were undertaken on the common species of geese in Scotland. These were revised in 2004-05 when new PVAs were commissioned to cover the five main wintering populations of Scottish geese: Iceland/Greenland pink-footed; Greenland white-fronted; Icelandic greylag; Greenland barnacle; and Svalbard barnacle. The PVAs were commissioned by Scottish Natural Heritage, their progress monitored and managed through GSAG, and the work was undertaken by the Institute of Zoology and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.
In 2005, GSAG also proposed work to examine the long-running datasets on goose numbers and goose schemes on Islay, to provide an initial assessment of whether these would inform us about the relative effectiveness of 
different methods of scaring. A contract was let to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO Scotland) which reported in 2006 with some interesting results. This work will be developed further in 2007 by analysing a further three years' data on the Islay geese.
GSAG continues to develop ideas for a range of research and monitoring which it is hoped will be undertaken between now and 2010. As part of that, a priority need for a better understanding of greylag goose populations in Scotland has been identified. As populations of wild greylags in the north-west, and reintroduced greylags in the south-west, grow, it is increasingly difficult to separate these from the over-wintering Icelandic population, at least on the basis of winter counts. Substantial shifts in winter distributions of Icelandic greylags have been seen in recent years, with increased numbers wintering on Orkney, for example. Discussions with JNCC and other parties are ongoing as to the best way to gain a fuller understanding of the distributions, numbers and movements within and between the Icelandic, reintroduced and native greylag populations. New or revised surveys may well be needed, in late summer as well as winter, so watch this space…….
Over many years, a number of organisations have ringed and marked geese in Scotland to better understand their ecology and migrations. Details can be found at www.wwt.org.uk/research and detail of the ringing and tracking of Svalbard barnacle geese at http://www.wwt.org.uk/text/266/barnacle_goose.html
More general information about bird ringing and detail of colour ringing projects.