Farming News - Survey results reinforce need to protect farmland birds

Survey results reinforce need to protect farmland birds

Just days after a decision by Defra minister Richard Benyon to allow the destruction of buzzard nests in the Midlands to support game shooting businesses received widespread condemnation from conservationists, a study has revealed the extent of damage current use of the countryside is doing to wild bird populations.

 

The European Birds Cencus Council released the findings of its most recent study over the weekend. The Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme study found Britain is amongst the worst affected EU states in terms of loss of birdlife.

 

Numbers of several farmland bird species have suffered severe declines since the 1980s. A reduction in meadow and wetland habitat, which the report’s authors claim has been incentivised and accelerated by European agriculture policy, is at the heart of many of the declines. The authors said that farming policy over the past forty years has focused on ramping up production at the cost of conservation.   

 

Numbers of birds including linnets, turtle doves, starlings and lapwings have fallen by between 50 and 90 per cent across Europe. In Britain, populations of grey partridges have fallen by 91 per cent, compared to 82 per cent in the rest of continental Europe.

 

Late last year, a joint report by the government and RSPB revealed numbers of farmland birds in Britain are at their lowest in over forty years. The report showed that half of all threatened bird species in Europe are farmland birds.

 

The RSPB, which works in conjunction with farmers across the UK was quick to stress that the declines are the result of unsustainable farming policies rather than the fault of individual farmer; a spokesperson for the organisation explained farmers “Cannot [support wildlife] without significantly increased funding for more environmentally friendly measures.”

 

Richard Gregory, the study’s chair and head of species monitoring at the RSPB yesterday commented on the findings, "We have been sleepwalking into a disaster. These losses are telling us that something is seriously amiss in the world around us and the way that we are interacting with nature."

 

Earlier this month, the RSPB announced it is mounting a three year project to prevent the extinction of the turtle dove from Britain. The charity said the bird has been identified as the most likely to become extinct in the UK by 2020.

 

Vetch, fumitory and clover, the principal plants on which the birds feed, have become rare in the UK due to changes in farming practices. Under the RSPB-led project, farmers will begin planting these seeds on less productive pieces of land in an attempt to support the doves. The birds have also been affected by a disease which affects the Columbidae (dove) family and illegal hunting along their migratory route.

 

Although efforts are being made to support a number of the birds found to be threatened in Europe, persistent use of synthetic chemicals and the destruction of habitat mean their future looks far from secure.