The 6th edition of the European Congress of Conservation Biology in Prague (ECCB)  will take place in Prague, Czech Republic between 22 and 26 August, where leading international scientists and experts will gather to discuss and exchange knowledge on the "Biodiversity crisis in a changing world."

Amongst the congress participants is BESTMAP’s partner Stephanie Roilo (Dresden University of Technology, Germany), who will have a dedicated presentation titled "Does regional context influence the effectiveness of Agri-Environment Measures in protecting the habitat of farmland birds?"

Agri-environment measures are the main tools of the Common Agricultural Policy to counteract the dramatic decline of farmland biodiversity in Europe. However, their effectiveness seems to vary depending on the regional environmental and land-use context. 

The aim of this study is to better understand this variability in Agri-Environment Measures (AEM) effectiveness, thus the BESTMAP team has tested the hypothesis that AEM are most effective in simple landscapes, compared to complex or cleared ones. The main focus of the research is placed on the extensive grassland management. The effect of AEM on the occurrence of one farmland bird species, the red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio), in landscapes of varying compositional and structural complexity, in two BESTMAP case study regions, Catalonia in Spain and the Mulde River Basin in Germany has been tested throughout the study.

Join our session to learn more about our progress and the results of the study. 

More about the ECCB2022 and how to register you can find here.