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Dieren en planten

Water en land

Mens en Milieu

Nature management   Agrarian nature management   
Agrarian Nature Management, Ecomare, Marieke van de Paauw

Agrarian nature management

Agrarian nature management (ANM) is nature-friendly farming. Production is the most important function of these grounds, however a farmer takes the natural flora and fauna found on its land into account during his or her work. Examples of nature-friendly farming are: not mowing the land until after a certain date, taking nests from meadow birds into account, not mowing the banks of ditches until seeds have been spread, not fertilizing fields, digging ponds for amphibians, etc. The farmer can receive compensation from the government for taking these regulations into account. The effects of ANM have been followed and in 2006 the results were disappointing in general.

  • Disappointing results

    In 2008, funding for ANM from the government changed from supporting those farmers in places where it is needed most to an equal division of money among all the provinces. Many bird organizations are disappointed in the new arrangement, since the problems concerning meadow birds that need the most support are concentrated in three of the twelve provinces. Too little money is available to conduct effective work.
    Between 2 to 4 billion euros are rotating in Europe for ANM. From an EC report, it appeared that this kind of management delivered little results. Farmers were taking all sorts of measures to help nature, but only common species are profiting, such as buttercups, sorrel, mallard ducks and coots. Threatened species, such as redshanks and black-tailed godwits, are still declining. This is still no reason to stop, according to the Center for Agriculture and Environment. The future is mozaik management, whereby farmers mow their land in phases so that birds can flee and sufficient food remains for the young birds.
    Despite the disappointing results, Swiss scientists found that agrarian nature management showed practically the same results for brooding European stonechats as the traditional extensively managed lands, which are growing scarse. In particular, managing the edges of meadows is a reasonable alternative. They found weather a much greater factor in influencing brooding success.