Farming & Agriculture

The Düffel has been farmed for centuries. A species rich bird community became established on the extensively farmed marshy grasslands.

Many of the fields were separated from each other by means of hedges and ditches. This created a structurally diverse and species rich cultural landscape.

The preservation of this landscape is only possible through continuous cultivation. Uncultivated land is not suited to meadow bird conservation. Successful nature conservation therefore

depends on collaboration with farmers and their agricultural practices. It is important that the agricultural use of land in conservation areas is adjusted and suited to meadow birds. A ‘mosaic-like’ cultivation would be ideal: grazing alongside mowing, temporally graded mowing dates which are spread widely over the various fields of the area. Currently there are not enough fields which are cultivated extensively and which have high ground water levels in the spring.

This projects aims to achieve two goals: first, the grassland cultivation has to take into account the habitat requirements and occurrences of meadow birds. Second, the operational needs of farmers have to be considered and included concretely in the project planning.