THE FUTURE FOR FARMLAND BIRDS: FUTURE IMPACTS OF LAND-USE CHANGE AND POTENTIAL POLICY OPPORTUNITIES

CONVENORS
Gavin Siriwardena
British Trust for Ornithology, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 2LW, UK .
Fax: +44 1842 750030; email: gavin.siriwardena@bto.org

Mario Diaz
Instituto de Recursos Naturales (IRN-CCMA-CSIC), c/Serrano 115 bis, E-28006 Madrid, Spain.
Fax: +34 915 640 800; email: mario.diaz@ccma.csic.es

DESCRIPTION
Declines in farmland bird populations have been documented across most of Europe. Subsequent research has identified causes of decline and policy and agri-environment solutions have been put into operation in some cases. However, there is still a need to identify regions and species for which we do not know how to reverse declines and to assess whether the management measures that are already in operation are actually succeeding. This assessment needs to consider whether a given measure actually successfully addresses causes of decline in practice and whether it is being adopted at a sufficiently large scale to have a population-level impact.

Farmland is also entering a new period of change, with the potential for large-scale changes in land-use associated with rapidly changing economics for crops, the loss of set-aside, novel crops being grown for biofuels, increasing abandonment of marginal land and changes in cropping forced by climate change. All of these changes could lead to new threats to farmland bird communities, but could also have positive impacts. It may also be possible to use legislation or subsidy payments to tie measures mitigating negative impacts of expected farming changes and enhancing positive ones together with new crops or land-uses.

This symposium will aim to bring together recent results and ongoing research in farmland bird conservation in order to identify priorities for further study and opportunities for collaboration across Europe at this critical time.

KEYNOTE 1: Siriwardena, G.M. & Diaz, M.  
Future threats and opportunities for farmland birds.

KEYNOTE 2: Arlettaz R, Ioset A, Maurer M, Menz M, Reichlin T, Weisshaupt N, Abadi F and Schaub M
Bare soil as a staple commodity for declining ground-foraging insectivorous farmland birds.

Brambilla, M., Negri, I., Bergero, V., Bogliani, G., Crovetto, G.M., Falco, R., Siccardi, P. and Casale, F.  
Red-backed shrike conservation at regional scale

Silva, J. P. Palmeirim, J. M. and Moreira, F     
Higher densities of the threatened little bustard Tetrax tetrax occur in larger grassland fields: management implications

Denac, D., Tome, D.
Recognition of ecological traps for Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra) in a mosaic of lowland habitat types