Reconciling food production and bird conservation: two case studies to inform future policy.

Abstract

Bird abundance and food production are compared at two farms in central England. Allocating productive land to habitat creation resulted in increases in bird numbers, although the scale and species affected differed between farms, and management other than habitat creation also had an influence on one farm. The land area required for bird conservation will differ between farms, according to management and existing ecological infrastructure. Farm-scale food production increased or remained stable, in part owing to changes in the set-aside area. In the absence of set-aside, and notwithstanding the need for management in field centres for some species, the trade-off between food production and bird conservation can be optimised by adopting management of non-cropped areas that deliver multiple ecosystem services, and concentrating such areas on field margins.