Surfbirds News: BirdLife International Archives
Research confirms extent of Europe’s disappearing farmland birds
New research has shown that Europe’s farmland birds have declined by almost 50% in the past 25 years ??? a trend caused by EU-wide agricultural intensification being driven by a policy in need of urgent reform.
The results, released today, bring together the most comprehensive biodiversity indicators of their kind in Europe, collated by the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBMS) - a partnership led by scientists from the European Bird Census Council, BirdLife International, the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) and Statistics Netherlands.
Corn Bunting, copyright Jim Duncan
The data was collected from 20 independent breeding bird survey programmes across Europe over the last 25 years, all of which were coordinated thanks to the concerted efforts of national programmes involving thousands of dedicated volunteer birdwatchers.
The results confirm the extent to which farmland birds have declined. Across Europe as a whole from 1980 to 2005, common farmland birds have on average fallen in number by 44%???the most severe decline of the bird categories monitored. |
