Mead­ow Breed­ing Con­ser­va­tion — A Lost Cause?

Many mil­lions of Euros have been invest­ed and sunk into mead­ow breed­ing pro­tec­tion in Cen­tral Europe over the past decades, with hard­ly any dis­cernible suc­cess. Breed­ing bird pop­u­la­tions are declin­ing. Things are look­ing a lit­tle bet­ter on the coast, with migra­to­ry birds also open­ing up bright spots. Was it all in vain? Are there no means and meth­ods to suc­cess? One should not be too pes­simistic, but new, coura­geous paths would have to be tak­en. There are a few ways to help mead­ow nest­ing birds. Not only farm­ers and land users, but also hunters and even walk­ers can con­tribute to eas­ing the sit­u­a­tion for mead­ow-nest­ing birds.

The con­fer­ence is there­fore aimed at all those who have an inter­est in grow­ing pop­u­la­tions of mead­ow-nest­ing birds in Cen­tral Europe. We do not want to stop at just tak­ing stock, but analyse the caus­es and devel­op per­spec­tives for the future. Water and land­scape man­age­ment mea­sures seem to play a spe­cial role. And what influ­ence do the small preda­tors have on the ground but also from the air?

The con­fer­ence is aimed at con­ser­va­tion­ists, sci­en­tists, farm­ers and foresters, ornithol­o­gists and pub­lic author­i­ties. Only togeth­er will there be a solution.