Landscape context and farm uptake limit effects of bird conservation in the Swedish Volunteer & Farmer Alliance

1. In Europe, agri-environmental schemes (AES) have been unsuccessful in halting biodiversity declines to any great extent. Two particular shortcomings of AES include the low farm uptake and the modest efficacy of many AES options. Partly in response to these shortcomings, initiatives encouraging farmers to take an active role in biodiversity conservation have gained in popularity. However, almost no evaluations of such initiatives exist. 2. We evaluated uptake of conservation advice on farms in the Swedish Volunteer & Farmer Alliance, a BirdLife Sweden-coordinated project aimed at farmland bird conservation, and the response of farmland birds to those actions using farm-level survey data, in a before-after implementation assessment. 3. Uptake was higher for unsubsidised (i.e. non-AES) measures than for AES options, and depended on farmers’ interest in nature, farm size (higher uptake on larger farms) and production type (higher on organic farms). 4. In general, abundances of non-c...1. 在欧洲范围内，农业环境计划（agri-environmental schemes）未能在较大程度上遏制生物多样性下降的趋势。该计划存在两项突出缺陷：一是农场参与率偏低，二是多数计划举措的实施效果有限。针对这些缺陷，鼓励农民积极参与生物多样性保护的相关举措日益受到欢迎，但目前几乎没有针对这类举措的评估研究。 2. 本研究采用实施前后评估框架，依托农场层面的调查数据，对瑞典鸟盟（BirdLife Sweden）协调的「瑞典志愿者与农民联盟」项目（该项目旨在开展农田鸟类保护工作）中，农民对农田鸟类保护咨询建议的参与情况，以及农田鸟类对相关保护行动的响应展开了评估。 3. 非补贴型（即非农业环境计划）保护举措的参与率高于农业环境计划举措，且参与率取决于农民对自然的兴趣、农场规模（大型农场的参与率更高）以及生产类型（有机农场的参与率更高）。 4. 总体而言，非……的丰度