Print
Linnet BAP report
The UK population of linnets fell by 54% between 1970 and 1998
What are we trying to achieve?
The Government agreed a Biodiversity Action Plan for this species in 1998. The targets for this plan were revised in 2006 and are as follows:
-
Increase the BBS index to 115% of the 2003 level by 2010 for UK, England and Scotland, and maintain the index at the 2003 level in Wales. In Northern Ireland, ensure the population is at 115% of the 2010 baseline level by 2015, the immediate priority for Northern Ireland is to establish population baseline by 2010
-
Maintain the percentage of occupied BBS squares at the 2004 level
What is the RSPB doing to help?
The RSPB is making a substantial contribution to the UK BAP for linnet and other farmland birds through research, advocacy and advisory work. We have co-funded a PhD research study at the University of Oxford, which indicated that the decline in the availability of seed sources, particularly in early summer, due to farming practices such as increased herbicide usage and intensive grassland management, resulted in poor breeding success. This was likely to have been a significant factor in the linnet’s population decline. This situation has since been improved, with the widespread introduction of palatable varieties of oil-seed rape, now widely used as a break crop in arable rotations. Loss of weedy winter stubbles may also have led to a reduction in winter seed food availability for linnets.
The RSPB is concentrating its effort on influencing agricultural policy and practice, through advisory and advocacy work, informed by research and monitoring information.
Following RSPB research and advocacy efforts, suitable prescriptive management options have been included in Environmental Stewardship in England, including the provision of winter stubbles.
Summary of progress
Following a major decline in the population in the mid-1970s, linnet numbers have recently been relatively stable, although there are no signs of a recovery to former levels. Population indices for farmland birds are based on long-term monitoring schemes; the JNCC funded Common Birds Census (CBC), for which 2000 was the final year; and its successor, the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). Between 1994 and 2005, linnet numbers declined in the UK by a statistically significant 7% according to the BBS, suggesting that the population is still declining, although 2006 saw a small, statistically non-significant increase. The long-term trend, assessed by the CBC/BBS, is a decline of 48% between 1970 and 2003, so we are still some way from achieving the BAP targets, despite their revision.
Linnets, like most seed-eaters, need weedy stubble fields in winter. Prescriptive measures to benefit linnet are now available in most agri-environment schemes, as a result of RSPB advocacy. However, with the exception of ‘Entry Level Stewardship’ in England, these are unlikely to be available on a wide enough scale. The likely disappearance of set-aside from the EU in the next few years, means that encouraging the take-up of stubble options in agri-environment schemes is essential to promote recovery.
Has our work been effective?
It is hard to gauge the direct effects of advocacy and advisory work on bird numbers but the indications are that our work has been effective in raising awareness of the decline in farmland birds such as the linnet, both among farmers and politicians.
The uptake of the Volunteer & Farmer Alliance Project is very encouraging first step that may produce tangible results in the future. It is too early to expect a positive biological outcome for this species but the RSPB has been enormously influential in laying the foundations for recovery through diagnostic research, advocacy and advice at both an individual level and wider scale, through the design of agri-environment schemes.
What do we plan to do next?
-
Continue to press government departments to change agricultural policy to benefit farmland birds, including linnet
-
Continue our efforts at UK and EU level to ensure rural development funding and in particular, agri-environment funding is increased, not decreased
-
Use the RSPB’s Volunteer & Farmer Alliance project to identify farms with linnets, and encourage farmers to apply for entry to relevant agri-environment schemes and manage their land appropriately
-
Continue research on potential conservation measures in pastoral areas such as the growing of wholecrop cereals with following weedy stubbles and the management of agricultural grassland to promote grass seed resources
What are the constraints to fully achieving the targets?
-
Lack of widespread prescriptive management due to funding constraints on agri-environment schemes
-
Likely disappearance of set-aside could reduce the area of overwintered stubble, unless take-up of agri-environment options is sufficient to compensate
-
A potential for the area of oilseed rape to fluctuate greatly dependent on market prices or the relative levels of subsidy change between this and other break crops. At present, prices for oilseed rape are likely to be buoyant due to the demand as a biofuel
-
It is unclear what measures may be available for linnet in pastoral regions
Last modified: 03 September 2007