Authors: Schindler, Stefan; Stockhammer, Katrin;Moreira, Francisco;Barov, Boris;Morelli, Federico;Giralt, David;Herzon, Iryna;Hristoskova, Silvia;Krall, Attila;Luoni, Federica;

The Birds@Farmland Initiative is a conservation effort, aiming at improving the weak performance of the CAP in relation to farmland birds by increasing number, diversity, volume, uptake and effectiveness of farmland bird conservation schemes. For this purpose, we selected ten EU Member States (MS), i.e. Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, and defined the most relevant ten agricultural systems and fifteen farmland bird species. In each of the ten MS, demand for conservation schemes for these systems and birds was assessed based on published evidence and stakeholder consultations. Based on this assessment, 22 conservation schemes (4 in Portugal, 2 in each of the other nine MS) were co-developed with relevant stakeholders (e.g. authorities, farmers associations, NGOs, academia) with the aim to get them considered by the National Strategic Plans for the CAP that were submitted to the European Commission by December 2022. The developed conservation schemes dealt e.g. with crop rotation, extensive grasslands, field margins, grazing intensity, mixed farming systems, rice cultivations, steppe habitats, and the particular species corncrake, great bustard, grey partridge, lapwing, and Montagu’s harrier. Indeed, several of the developed schemes were taken up into CAP Strategic Plans (related negotiations are ongoing).