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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
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).
Forest birds
Farmland birds
All birds
Population index of common birds (1980=100)
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
50
75
100
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