Land use changes and the decline of farmland wildlife: An appraisal of the set-aside approach Original Research Article

Declines in the distribution and abundance of many wildlife groups associated with agricultural ecosystems have been documented across Europe. The increasing body of evidence suggests that the processes of intensification of production have been responsible for many of these losses. The widespread introduction of set-aside throughout Europe from the mid-1980s was thought to have provided a mechanism by which to reduce the adverse effects of agricultural production techniques and produce benefits for farmland wildlife. In many instances this has not been the case and, in fact, the large-scale uptake of set-aside has seen the continuation of the decline of already threatened groups. However, although land abandonment from agriculture per se may not be universally valuable, correctly managed set-aside with precise environmental goals is believed to be a useful opportunity to provide resource-rich habitats for declining species. Examples are taken from the conservation biology of gamebirds and endangered annual arable wildflowers in the UK to demonstrate the adverse effects of agricultural intensification and the role of set-aside in the conservation biology of farmland wildlife.