ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF ENTRY LEVEL STEWARDSHIP ON LOWLAND FARMLAND BIRDS IN ENGLAND
Catherine Davey*1, Juliet Vickery2, Nigel Boatman3, Dan Chamberlain1,
Hazel Parry1 & Gavin Siriwardena1
1 BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford IP24 2PU, UK
2 RSPB, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire SG19 2DL, UK
3 Central Science Laboratory, Sand Hutton, York YO41 1LZ, UK
* Email: Catherine.davy@bto.org
Environmental Stewardship (ES) is central to the delivery of the UK Government’s Public Service Agreement (PSA) that aims to reverse the decline of farmland birds by 2020. The Entry Level Scheme (ELS), introduced in 2005, is the first non-competitive, broad-uptake stewardship scheme designed to deliver simple but effective environmental management on farms throughout England. Approximately 5 million hectares of farmland are currently entered into ES agreements; given the scale of this investment it is important to verify the efficacy of ELS as mechanism for delivering biodiversity benefits.
The BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), a broad-scale volunteer-based survey, is currently used to monitor breeding farmland birds on c.1500 randomly selected 1km squares. In 2005 and 2008 the BBS was supplemented with an additional 1000 lowland farmland squares to help examine the effects of ELS implementation. We used spatially referenced farm agreement data to assess the influence of specific management options and combinations of options on farmland bird population trends. Relevant option combinations were identified a priori based upon species’ ecology and uptake levels, only those likely to affect populations were examined.
The findings of this study will assist in the development of ELS by feeding into the five-year review when the first round of agreements are due for renewal in 2010.
Catherine Davey recently completed a PhD at Bristol University where she examined the implications of game management for vertebrate biodiversity in UK woodlands. She currently works at the BTO as a Research Ecologist.
