Massive decline in European farm birds
LISBETH KIRK
21.01.2004 @ 10:01 CET
A new study on the population trends of wild birds has shown that numbers have steeply declined.
The study by BirdLife, is based on 24 widespread farmland birds (including Skylarks, Lapwings and Yellowhammers) and shows that numbers have gone down by more than 30 percent since 1980 as a result of intensive farming.
The decline in farmland birds has been greatest in those EU countries with the most intensive farming systems (Photo: Notat)
BirdLife, a partnership of conservation organisations for the protection of birds, is now calling on the European Commission as well as current and future EU member states to put the environment and wildlife at the heart of farming policy.
If nothing is done there will be further massive decline and some birds may even become extinct in wildlife-rich new member states, still relatively untouched by the ravages of intensive farming, says the organisation.
Previous research has shown that the population decline of farmland birds has been greatest in those EU countries with the most intensive farming systems.
"Subsidies paid to farmers to maximise output have driven the corncrake out of much of the European Union. In fact, this has been so marked you can pick out the outline of the Common Agricultural Policy imprinted on the distribution map of the bird", said Graham Wynne, chief executive of the The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
