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Plant protection products threaten farmland birds

Lerche

Plant protection products threaten farmland birds such as the skylark
Source: Dubultz / Fotolia.com

The populations of many birds and mammals commonly found in farmlands are in steep decline in Germany and throughout Europe.

01.04.2014

A new Federal Environment Agency study has established that the widespread use of plant protection products in intensive agriculture deprives farmland birds in particular of their food source. Wild arable plants, bugs and caterpillars are killed off to protect crops and therefore no longer available as food for other animals. The increasing loss of biodiversity is inevitable. But there is another way: buffer areas of flowering strips and fallow land can substitute as a habitat for bees, butterflies and birds and thereby offset the effects of the use of chemical plant protection products.

Links

  • press release "Loss of biodiversity on fields"

Publications

  • Protection of biodiversity of free living birds and mammals in respect of the effects of pesticides
Article:

Tags:
 effects of herbicides  pesticides  plant protection product  bird  biodiversity  agrobiodiversity  species loss  species extinction Top

The UBA’s motto, For our environment (“Für Mensch und Umwelt”), sums up our mission pretty well, we feel. In this video we give an insight into our work.

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Source URL (modified on 19.05.2014):https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/topics/plant-protection-products-threaten-farmland-birds