illustratie cyclus weidevogelbeheer

RAAK PRO: farmers, citizens and outdoor animals as sensors for meadow bird management

How can we use data to improve meadow bird management?

Due to changes in land use, climate, associated changes in biotope, food availability and predation pressure, the numbers of meadow birds in the Netherlands continues to decline despite years of efforts to protect them. Because of the current size of the meadow bird population, reducing predation pressure is prioritized. Predation pressure depends not only on numbers of predators and potential prey in the breeding season, but also on terrain management and use of space by all those species throughout the year. Continuously available data on the occurrence and behavior of animals in the field, combined with data on the quality of the biotope and management, are essential for this. However, this form of integrated year-round management monitoring is only in its infancy.

Many new techniques for improving management monitoring are currently being developed, such as wildlife cameras, drones, satellites and citizen science. Unfortunately, data from this monitoring is fragmented across various databases. An integral and reliable assessment system for the data is currently not available. As a result, the possibility of using this type of data is currently still underestimated and underused. As a result, opportunities that improve the protection of meadow birds are missed.

The aim of this project is to develop a knowledge system that integrates available data from multiple sources and makes it applicable to the sustainable management of meadow bird areas, by substantiating choices in biotope and population management. This detection and analysis system is set up in a co-creation process with end users, managers, data collectors and system developers on the basis of an iterative monitoring and evaluation series in three meadow bird areas. The order of these areas has been chosen in view of the increasing naivete with regard to high-tech sources and the increasing complexity of the issues. In addition, a sensor-intensive measurement is organized to calibrate different data sources to each other.

Partners

There are 12 partners involved in the project, of which Hogeschool Van Hall Larensteyn is the coordinator.

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Duration

The project started September 2022 and has a duration of four years.

Fincancing

The project has a size of 1 million euros and is partly financed by a RAAK-PRO subsidy.

More information

Miha Lavric

Dr. Miha Lavric

Lecturer/Researcher

06 - 8314 7016 linkedin