GrassBirdHabitats: What we do

Habitat optimisation

Breeding areas for meadow birds do not maintain themselves. On the one hand, modern agricultural land use leads to a decline of meadow bird populations. On the other hand, abandonment of land use also results in habitat loss, because open meadows and pastures become fallow land…

Wet meadow with short green grass and widely spread areas of shallo water.

Transmitter birds

In 2018, we started satellite-tagging Black-tailed Godwits in the scope of the precursor project LIFE Meadow Birds. The goal was (and still is) to find the exact migratory routes that the birds use, and to use that information to determine which dangers they might face along the way…

One person holding up a black-tailed godwit in the background and second person writing...

Result-based management

As part of the LIFE IP GrassBirdHabitats project, we have developed a result-based payment model for farming on public land in meadow bird habitats. By managing wet grassland areas appropriately, farmers create favourable breeding habitats for meadow birds. They receive payment based on the number of breeding pairs nesting on their land…

Strategic Conservation Plan

To counter the alarming decline of wet grassland breeding bird populations in the Atlantic region of Europe, conservation projects need to be guided by a global strategy that addresses conservation challenges along the entire East Atlantic Flyway…

Monitoring

We carry out various monitoring activities, including:

The impact of our measures on meadow bird populations
The impact of different environmental factors on meadow bird populations
Monitoring of water tables
Assessing what needs to be done on the socio-economic level to transition to ecological farming practices

Additionally, we want to explore the impact of land-use intensity and wetland restoration on insect populations, which are essential food sources for meadow bird chicks. We want to find out if the current insect population declines also occur in rewetted wet grasslands and, if so, how to avoid them…

Meadow with tall vegetation and a few yellow flowers. In the middle stands a tent-like...

Senegal

West Africa plays a significant role in the life cycle of many migratory meadow birds. In fact, many birds that breed in northern European wet grasslands (e.g. in the Netherlands and Northern Germany) spend the majority of their time in their wintering grounds in Senegal. We also develop multiple projects there, in order to protect meadow birds in their entire life cycle. Find out more about our ongoing projects in Senegal:

Djoudj National Park Mbawaar wetland

A wetland with grass and shrub vegetation, shaped by large rivers and basins.

Capacity building

Our project aims to establish a professional working team with experienced experts and young talents to fully implement the project goals and to share and spread specific knowledge on habitat optimisation for grassland breeding birds. The LIFE IP has personnel capacities and resources for starting initial measures and for developing and implementing concepts (see payment model and Strategic Conservation Plan).

However, to achieve the project objectives (improve the conservation status of grassland breeding birds), much more comprehensive capacities need to be built. We need to create a sustainable network of like-minded responsible site managers, among other things. At the political level, the importance and impact of sustainable species conservation must be recognised and supported with appropriate regulations. On the technical level, the exchange with experiences from other regions is of great importance, so we can share existing knowledge and recent experiences in dealing with new challenges.

In this project, we put a strong emphasis on networking and expert visits to European and African areas to serve these purposes.

Awareness raising

The aim of the project is to inform both the general public and specific interest groups about meadow birds and their conservation. To this end, we organise information events, field trips, and regional workshops, amongst other things.

We also produce various materials to illustrate our work and objectives, such as roll-up banners. Our project partner Collectief Súdwestkust has also developed teaching materials on meadow birds for schools.

New press releases and blog posts about the project are published regularly. There are also frequent scientific publications supported by our project, either through personnel or funding.

At the end of the project, an international closing conference will take place, which will be open to both the general public and experts.

Additional funding

Raising water levels is the key factor for habitat optimisation in many areas. Water management that benefits meadow bird conservation can permanently only be carried out on public land. Thus, land acquisition is an essential requirement to achieve the project goals. Further funds must be raised for this purpose. We aim at purchasing 2,000 ha of land for meadow bird conservation in Lower Saxony.

In total, grassland habitats of 21,000 ha shall be optimised in Lower Saxony, including high water tables, low predation rates, open landscapes, and low-intensity farming. Additional funding is necessary to carry out these habitat optimisation measures. For this purpose, we primarily use European and federal funding sources.

The project team has successfully applied for another project in the scope of the European funding programme LIFE: LIFE Godwit Flyway. In addition, the European EAFRD and ERDF funds are used to get further funding to implement measures on public land. The State of Lower Saxony usually provides the co-financing for these projects.

Smaller measures with a shorter duration are financed by the state's own funding programmes. Here, we collaborate with the responsible nature conservation authorities.