How can better monitoring help farmers choose the right measures for farmland birds — and help policymakers understand whether those measures work?
For Vlaamse Landmaatschappij (VLM), this connection between the farm, the landscape and policy is at the heart of its role in FARMBIRD.
VLM is a Flemish government agency specialising in land management and rural development. It manages agri-environmental schemes in Flanders and has extensive experience advising and supporting farmers.
Within FARMBIRD, VLM will establish two pilot areas in Flanders together with the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). The pilots cover different agricultural landscapes, with one focusing on meadow birds and another on field birds.
VLM’s agricultural advisers will work with farmers to explore measures that can support farmland birds and biodiversity. At the same time, new monitoring techniques developed within FARMBIRD can help show what is happening on the ground.
VLM is particularly interested in more effective and cost-efficient ways to detect nests and better understand the effects of predation. Some farmland birds, such as Corn Bunting and Eurasian Skylark, are especially challenging to monitor using traditional methods.
INBO will carry out the ecological monitoring, while VLM brings its knowledge of farmers, agricultural practice, management agreements and policy.
This combination matters. More accurate monitoring can help improve the evidence behind agri-environmental schemes and contribute to future management approaches under the Common Agricultural Policy and nature restoration policies in Flanders.
For FARMBIRD, VLM therefore forms an important bridge: from data collected in the field to measures farmers can use and policies that can support them.
We Fly Together.