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The farmers' conservation strategies included putting iron racks over clutches to protect from being trampled by cows, marking clutches so they can manure and mow around them, and mowing bird-rich fields last to give the clutches more time to hatch.

The researchers' method was also cheaper than the current 100-400 Euro/clutch: the average cost of paying farmers per clutch was 40 Euro. This figure is based primarily on how long it took farmers to find and protect clutches. To promote conservation of the rarer meadowbirds, which take more time to find, the researchers propose that the fee/clutch vary with the rareness of meadowbird species in The Netherlands, ranging from 12 Euro for the common oystercatcher to 120 Euro for the rare Ruff.

The pay-per-clutch method of conserving meadowbirds is now being used in 27,000 acres of grasslands in the Western Peat Area as well as in several other parts of The Netherlands.

Musters' co-authors are: Maurice Kruk, who did this work while at Leiden University in Leiden, The Netherlands, and is now at a national nature conservation NGO, and Hans de Graaf and Wim ter Keurs of Leiden University in Leiden, The Netherlands.

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Contact: Kees Musters
musters@rulsfb.leidenuniv.nl
31-071-527-7495
Society for Conservation Biology
21-Mar-2001