“This year’s registration of lapwings has shown an alarming drop in population in the district,” reports Amelie Vießmann, biodiversity advisor at the lower nature conservation authority in the district office. While 60 breeding pairs and 51 clutches were still documented in 2021, only 31 breeding pairs and 25 clutches could be identified in 2022. “In addition, the breeding success was less than 50 percent – not enough to maintain the population in the district in the long term,” says the specialist.
In order to counteract the massive losses, the district office is providing funding for 2023 for farmers who cultivate their land in a lapwing-friendly manner. This is intended to create more suitable breeding habitats and increase the chances of successfully rearing chicks. Subsidies can be provided, for example, for later maize sowing, premature plowing up of fields, laying fields fallow, troughs that are not cultivated or wet areas and flower strips. Depending on the measure, funding amounts of up to 1300 euros per hectare are possible.
The lapwing protection project has existed in the Ebersberg district since 2018
“Whereas the lapwing used to be an integral part of our cultural landscape, the stocks have declined by more than 90 percent in Bavaria and Germany in the last 30 years, which is why the former “common species” is now listed as “endangered” on the Bavarian Red List”, explains Viessmann. That is why the Lower Nature Conservation Authority launched the “Species Aid Project for the Lapwing” in 2018. Since then, every year during the breeding season, from March to the end of July, voluntary helpers to protect the eggs have been on duty for the lapwing, always in close cooperation with the farmers on whose land the lapwings are.
Interested farmers can obtain further information from the Lower Nature Conservation Authority. Contact Amelie Viessmann. can be reached on (08092) 823 312 or by email at the address [email protected].