Europe: 800 million birds disappeared in 40 years – 05/17/2023 – Environment

A study published this Monday (15) in France points to the disappearance of 25% of bird populations in Europe in almost 40 years. Intensive agriculture is the main cause of the extermination of birds, which makes it urgent to rethink the current way of producing food.

The data are even more alarming for agricultural environments, where the disappearance of birds affects 60% of species, according to the most complete study carried out to date on the subject and which was published in the scientific journal PNAS.

Fifty researchers managed to collect, over 37 years, data from 20,000 ecological monitoring sites, in 28 European countries, for 170 different species of birds. This was an unprecedented collective effort, according to ecologist Vincent Devictor, director of research at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and co-author of the study, along with Vasilis Dakos and Stanislas Rigal.

The researchers compared different types of impacts related to human activity (changes in climate, urbanization, forest areas and agricultural practices) and quantified and prioritized, for the first time, their consequences on bird populations.

“The results are frightening: 20 million birds have disappeared on average from one year to the next in Europe, for almost 40 years,” said Devictor in an interview with the newspaper Libération. “That represents 800 million fewer birds since 1980”, he reveals.

Among the species studied is the house sparrow, whose populations have dropped by 64% and are in danger of becoming rare.

Not all ecosystems, however, are affected in the same way: while the number of forest birds has decreased by 18% in 40 years, this number rises to 28% for urban birds, such as swallows, reaching 57% in the case of associated birds. to agricultural environments. Among them is the corn puffin, which has seen its populations drop by 77% in Europe.

Experts explain that birds that prefer the heat have suffered less. The global increase in the planet’s temperatures has affected more the species that live in the cold and that had a 40% drop in their populations, while those that prefer the heat suffered a decline of 18%.

Fertilizers and pesticides are the main causes

The study clearly demonstrates the responsibility of agricultural practices in this collapse of bird populations in Europe. “Bird populations suffer a ‘cocktail’ of pressures, but our work concludes that the dominant adverse effect is the increase in the amount of fertilizers and pesticides used per hectare. This has led to the decline of many bird populations, especially insectivores”, he explains. Vincent Devictor.

“Until now, this responsibility of intensive agriculture has been assumed, but contested. Some pointed a lot to the responsibility of cats, for example”, he adds. “It’s just that most of the bird species studied will never see a cat in their lifetime because they are not species exposed to urban or suburban environments,” she clarifies.

France as a bad example

According to the study, farm bird populations have fallen by an average of 43% in France over 40 years. But in some cases, the decline reaches 75%, as for the tree sparrow, the bush parrot and the hoary pipi. “There are fewer holes to make nests, less places to hide, to rest, etc. And there are no more insects. Living conditions are degraded, the environment has become hostile. We are among the countries incapable of maintaining biodiversity in environments agriculture”, denounces the French researcher.

Along with Germany, France is among the countries with the highest growth in the sale of pesticides, in volume. Furthermore, the number of farms over 100 hectares has increased by 12% in France since 2005, while that of small farms has fallen by 24%.

“Our agricultural landscape is not heading towards something more welcoming to biodiversity, on the contrary”, he laments. The decline of birds, therefore, is a sign of profound environmental degradation. In France, the number of forest birds decreased by 19%.

What are the consequences for other ecosystems?

The researchers highlight the important role of birds in ecosystems, where they are prey and food. “It eats and is eaten. If this group is doing poorly, it’s because the insects are doing poorly, but small mammals are also doing poorly, because there are many of them that feed on eggs, birds, etc.” In addition, birds have other functions, as they carry many materials and seeds.

“What is certain is that we will have to review the ideology that conquered the agricultural world at the end of the Second World War: productivity per hectare, large farms, exports, competitiveness, etc. Farmers have known this for a long time. But there is a clear lack of ambition in agricultural policy”, denounces the author of the study.

“Organic products occupy only 8% of the agricultural area in Europe. There is resistance and lobbies. And the climate is changing, with more and more droughts”, he adds. “Producing differently is a question of the survival of the agricultural model itself”, concludes Vincent Devictor.

(With information from AFP)