Agri-environment schemes as a tool for reversing declining populations of grassland waders: Mixed benefits from Environmentally Sensitive Areas in England

Agri-environment schemes (AES) are a key tool in attempts to reverse long-term declines in farmland biodiversity within the European Union (EU). Approximately 20% of EU farmland is under AES agreement, at a cost of over €24 billion between 1994 and 2003. Despite this huge investment, few studies have investigated the effectiveness of schemes and those studies that do exist have often been inadequately designed or analysed. In southern England, repeat censuses of lowland breeding waders provide a rare opportunity to evaluate effectiveness of the Environmentally Sensitive Areas scheme (ESA), an AES designed with broad environmental objectives, including the maintenance or enhancement of the populations of these birds. The censuses provide a quasi-experimental approach, allowing a comparison to be made of breeding population trends of three species, Lapwing, Redshank and Snipe, on scheme and non-scheme land. The results show mixed success. For all three species, population trends were most favourable (increasing or declining less rapidly) in the more expensive ESA options aimed at enhancing habitat; the less expensive, habitat maintenance options, appear to have little benefit for Lapwing and Snipe, although Redshank has benefited. The results also show the increasing importance of nature reserves for these species in southern England. We suggest that although AES can result in significant benefits, especially when monetary investment is high, delivery of biodiversity targets are by no means guaranteed.