Farmland Birds - ecological basis for the evaluation of biodiversity targets in agricultural lands: conclusions for policy advice

Farmland birds act as important bio-indicators for agricultural areas. Bird-based indicators reveal current negative trends in species diversity and landscape quality of German agricultural areas. Urgent, more effective nature protection and environmental measures are needed in agricultural areas to reach biodiversity targets. To this end, methods were developed to assess habitat suitability of indicator bird species, impacts of agricultural measures on farmland birds were analyzed and suggestions for a biodiversity-friendly land-use were derived. Research projects and local conservation measures are effective tools of biodiversity conservation in agricultural areas. Sustainable land-use forms that ensure biodiversity preservation inevitably need efficient nature protection measures in agricultural areas, as aimed by the EU's Greening policy. Sufficiently beneficial effects could be reached through ecological focus areas, where these hold high habitat qualities and are large enough. Farmers should be offered a choice of nature protection measures from which they can select the most operationally applicable to their situation. This, however, requires a weighting of measures of the ecological focus areas as a function of habitat quality. Also, a specific management way is necessary for this agricultural land.