Andy Hay/RSPB Images Lapwings are declining mainly as a result of agricultural intensification Zoom In

Dramatic decline of European farm birds predicted

20-01-2004

With just over 100 days to go until 10 new countries join the European Union, BirdLife is calling on the European Commission and Member States of EU and accession countries to urgently put the environment and wildlife at the heart of farming policy.

A new BirdLife study on the population trends of wild birds, published yesterday at a seminar held during Berlin's Agriculture Green Week (Grüne Woche), shows that numbers of 24 widespread farmland birds (including Skylarks, Lapwings and Yellowhammers) have crashed across Europe by more than 30% since 1980 – the result of intensive farming.

Declines have been most severe in countries in northwest Europe. Previous research has shown that the population declines of farmland birds have been greatest in those EU countries with the most intensive farming systems. In the UK, for example, intensive agriculture has squeezed wildlife out of many former strongholds and between 1970-1999, the Skylark declined by 52% and the Corn Bunting by 88%.

Around 150 species of European birds are reliant on sustainable farming for their future survival. Birds at most immediate risk are those particularly vulnerable to intensive agriculture, such as the Corncrake, Red-backed Shrike and Great Bustard – birds which have been lost as regular breeding birds from much of northwest Europe and which will be threatened as agricultural development spreads. Currently, eastern European states still have significant populations of these birds.

BirdLife believes it is vital the governments of the 10 countries joining the European Union on 1 May heed the stark warning to take the environment into account. Otherwise, there will be further massive declines or even extinctions in wildlife-rich new member states, still relatively untouched by the ravages of intensive farming.

Andy Hay/RSPB Images The Corncrake Crex crex has also declined across Europe Zoom In

"If the environmental management of farms does not receive higher budget allocation, there is little hope for wildlife conservation in accession countries." —Przemek Chylarecki, President of OTOP (BirdLife in Poland)

BirdLife is urging EU and Future Member States to use the Common Agricultural Policy funds - the taxpayer’s money - to maintain extensive farming systems that encourage environmentally sensitive practices and create environmental and local benefits for rural communities.