Reversing declines in farmland birds: How much agri-environment provision is needed at farm and landscape scales?

Abstract

Agri-environment schemes (AES) are the primary policy mechanism for addressing farmland biodiversity declines across Europe. Despite previous studies on the impacts of AES on biodiversity, there is little empirical evidence on the scale of provision required to reverse declines. Across three regions of lowland England with contrasting farm systems (arable, pastoral, mixed), we estimated avian population growth rates (PGRs) on farmland with high AES provision (‘higher-tier’: average bird-friendly option cover = 7.4%), low AES provision (‘lower-tier’: 2.3%) and no bird-friendly AES (‘no AES’). Ten-year PGRs were derived for 24 species and three multi-species groups comprising farmland-associated species (‘farmland birds’), species of conservation concern (‘priority birds’) and species restricted to farmland (‘specialist birds’). We used PGRs to simulate the proportion of the regional farmland landscape that would have to be assigned to higher- and lower-tier agreements to stabilise or increase populations. In the arable and pastoral regions, 13/23 and 13/22 species, respectively, had more positive PGRs under higher-tier AES than on no AES farmland (none had more negative PGRs), compared to 4/22 (positive) and 1/22 (negative) in the mixed region. Only two to four species per region exhibited more positive PGRs under lower-tier AES compared to no AES farmland. Multi-species PGRs in the arable and pastoral regions increased from no AES (strong decline), to lower-tier (decline or stability) to higher-tier (moderate or strong increase). There was no overall AES effect in the mixed region. To increase regional farmland bird populations by 10% over 10 years, 47% and 26% of the farmed landscape would need to be devoted to higher-tier agreements in arable and pastoral landscapes respectively. This falls to 34% and 17% when higher-tier is targeted at localities supporting higher abundances of target species, and to 29% and 10% when 30% of the farmed landscape is also devoted to lower-tier. Priority and specialist birds require higher provision levels. Policy implications. Where farmland bird recovery is an AES objective, farms should prioritise higher-tier agreement delivery over lower-tier. Farmland bird responses to AES provision are likely to vary regionally, but careful targeting will reduce the amount needed in the landscape.