LIFE IP GrassBirdHabitats

Conservation of wet grassland breeding bird habitats in the Atlantic Region

About the project  

LIFE Integrated Project

Welcome to the website of the LIFE IP GrassBirdHabitats project, an EU-funded initiative dedicated to protecting meadow birds and their habitats. Our goal is to create and connect optimal breeding and non-breeding areas along the East Atlantic Flyway.

The project focuses on habitat conservation and restoration in Lower Saxony (Germany) and Fryslân (the Netherlands) while also developing a strategic conservation plan for meadow birds in the Atlantic region of Europe and in West Africa.

The project will run for ten years. It started in November 2020 and will be concluded by the end of October 2030.

On the first weekend of February, LIFE Godwit Flyway project members Afonso Rocha and José Alves led and were joined by international colleagues for a…

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Migratory birds rely on a network of sites throughout their annual cycles, making them particularly vulnerable to changing environmental conditions,…

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The Senegal River Delta is a hotspot for migratory birds flying along the East Atlantic Flyway. It is the first major resting area for migratory…

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The European Union subsidizes farmers that adopt practices that benefit biodiversity and ecosystem services. These subsidies, called agri-environment…

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What we do

To improve the conservation status of meadow birds along the East Atlantic Flyway, a team of more than 40 people is carrying out various measures. Our common goal is to increase the birds' reproduction rates in the Netherlands and Germany and to improve their return rates from their wintering grounds in West Africa.

More about our measures

Our focus species

Transmitter birds

In six years of challenging field work, we have equipped more than 380 adult and juvenile Black-tailed Godwits with GPS transmitters, and collected more than 256,000 locations. We use lightweight transmitters with lots of different sensors to gain detailed movement and behavioural data from the birds. 

With this information, we want to improve conservation measures for Black-tailed Godwits and other meadow birds along the East Atlantic Flyway.

Track our Godwits More about our transmitter birds

The project in numbers

353  mil.
out of 353 mil.

complementary funding acquired

291.000  ha

total project area

100  %

of all European Black-tailed Godwits breed in Germany and the Netherlands

150
birds

tagged with GPS transmitters

Where we work

Our project areas comprise the core breeding areas of meadow birds in the north-western European Plain (in Lower Saxony and Fryslân) and their core wintering sites (in West Africa) along the East Atlantic Flyway.

More about our project areas