As of: February 27, 2024, 10:36 a.m
By: Dirk Walter
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A rarity in Bavaria: the black-tailed godwit is threatened with extinction.
© LBV
The extinction of species - see polar bear - is not only taking place in the Arctic, but also in local fields.
28 bird species are threatened with extinction in Bavaria, warns the State Association for Bird Protection.
However, there is also reason for hope.
Munich – agricultural diesel, environmental regulations, bureaucracy – the farmers are on the barricades.
The tractor protest has long alarmed federal politicians.
But someone in Hilpoltstein is also worried.
The small Central Franconian town is home to the headquarters of the State Association for Bird Protection (LBV), which, alongside the Federal Nature Conservation Association, is probably the largest lobby organization for environmental protection in Bavaria.
Its chairman, Nobert Schäffer, is concerned that the protests could result in environmental regulations for farmers falling.
“We are noticing headwinds,” Schäffer tells our newspaper.
“There is a risk that the environmental goals will be undermined.”
On Sunday World Endangered Species Day
On World Endangered Species Day this Sunday (March 3rd), the LBV warns of a loss of native species.
Only 97 of the 210 bird species that regularly occur in Bavaria are completely safe; even the house sparrow is on the warning list.
While the bird life on water bodies and in forests is stable and populations in settlements are only declining slightly, things are looking dramatically bad for meadow and field birds.
“In the past 40 years we have lost half of the individuals,” says Schäffer.
95 percent of the partridges, 80 to 90 percent of the lapwings and over half of the skylarks are no longer present today.
The State Association for Bird Protection is acutely concerned about the black-tailed godwit.
It is “unfortunately on the decline,” said LBV specialist Verena Auernhammer.
The number of breeding pairs is declining.
In 1994 there were 94, in 2021 only 19. The State Office for the Environment only reported eleven pairs for 2023, but that is a preliminary number.
The main problem is dry and regularly mown meadows.
The bird needs wet meadows and shallow water areas where it can poke around for food with its long beak.
The goldfinch is fine again
But the LBV doesn't want to paint a purely negative picture.
“We also see successes and don’t want to paint the complete apocalypse on the wall,” says LBV boss Norbert Schäffer.
The number of goldfinches has more than doubled between 2013 and 2021, as speaker Alexandra Fink explained.
The goldfinch, which feeds on up to 152 different types of seeds, requires “wild gardens where disorder is allowed.”
And there are apparently more and more of them in Bavaria.
Schäffer hopes that the 2019 bee referendum will also cause a reversal of the trend for meadow and field birds in the long term.
The orchards agreed upon at the time had not been planted long enough for this to have a direct impact on bird life.
Above all, he warns against giving in to the agreed goal of reducing the use of pesticides.
Recent statements by CSU European politician Manfred Weber and Bavaria's Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (FW) fueled this fear.
After all, Bavaria's Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber (CSU) has committed to the goal of halving the amount of pesticides in agriculture by 2028 compared to the 2015/18 average.
“We have to reduce the crowd,” says Schäffer.
The referendum and species protection are “not a sure-fire success”.