European steppe birds face steep declines

Thirty partners from Austria, France, Germany, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, and Hungary are involved in the project "Cross-border protection of the great bustard and the little bustard in Europe", with the Milvus Group from Târgu Mureș tasked with contributing to the protection of the last great bustard habitats in the Salonta area, Bihor County, CE Report quotes AGERPRES.

“Based on the experience gained from the successful protection of the great bustard in Central Europe over the past 25 years, the large-scale LIFE EUROBUSTARD initiative aims to stop the ongoing decline of the great bustard and the little bustard across Europe. The project ‘Cross-border protection of the great bustard and the little bustard in Europe’, implemented by 30 partners from 8 countries (Austria, France, Germany, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Hungary), including the Milvus Group, focuses its actions on three main directions: extensive habitat improvement measures, reducing the mortality rate caused by collisions with overhead power lines, and reducing mortality caused by agricultural machinery,” stated the Milvus Group – the Association for the Protection of Birds and Nature from Târgu Mureș, in a press release sent on Wednesday.

The Milvus Group’s activity will focus on protecting the last remaining habitats of the great bustard in the Salonta area (Bihor County), near the border with Hungary. Within this project, the Romanian NGO's activities will focus exclusively on great bustard conservation, since, according to available information, the little bustard does not nest in Romania, appearing only sporadically during migration or in winter in the southeastern part of the country, especially in Dobrogea.

According to the same source, steppe birds – including the great bustard – are among the bird groups currently experiencing the steepest population declines, which is a major conservation concern.

“The bird family Otididae is particularly vulnerable, as many of its species share the agricultural landscape with humans and therefore require active conservation measures. The great bustard (Otis tarda) and the little bustard (Tetrax tetrax) are two well-known species of this family living in the Palearctic region, an area under high anthropogenic pressure, land-use change, and agricultural intensification. As previous LIFE projects in Central Europe have shown, it is still possible to successfully protect these two species by implementing the most important conservation measures,” the Milvus Group added.

The European population of the great bustard has decreased by one-third over the last 11 years, although during the same period the West-Pannonian population (Austria, western Hungary, and Slovakia) has more than doubled, the source also noted.