The Environmental Food Crisis

Europe’s common farmland birds declined severely during the past 26 years. Their average breeding populations in 2006 were about 50% lower than in 1980, and there is no sign of recovery. Farmland birds have suffered most in western Europe, which has the longest history of agricultural intensification. The countries of central and eastern Eu- rope, which joined the European Union (EU) more recently (in 2004 or 2007), have not yet sustained such large losses of farmland birds, but their numbers are declining and are already much lower than in the 1980s. Agricultural intensification, such as the loss of crop diver- sity, destruction of grasslands and hedgerows, and excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers, has been widely recognised as one of the main driving forces behind this dramatic decline of common farm- land birds. A transformation of the EU Common Agricultural Policy into a sustainable land management and rural development policy, thereby stopping the distribution of environmentally harmful subsi- dies, may prevent further declines of farmland bird populations. Loss of European Birds with agricultural intensi- fication

Population index of common birds (1980=100)

125

Forest birds

100

All birds

75

Farmland birds

50

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

Figure 28: Farmland birds in Europe have declined dramatically in the last decades, mainly as a result of agricultural intensification. (Source: RSPB, European Bird Census Council (EBCC) and the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBMS).

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