NABU files EU complaint for grey partridge

In the German-speaking region, the grey partridge is listed on the Red List.

Reckless hunting, intensive agriculture and protective measures introduced too late are the main factors behind the extinction of the grey partridge.

On 2 October 2020, the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union Germany (NABU) filed an official complaint (in English) against Germany with the EU Commission. The complaint concerns the dramatically poor conservation status of the grey partridge, which is attributed to misguided agricultural policy. Since 1980, the grey partridge population has declined by 91%. In NABU’s view, the federal and state governments are thereby violating the requirement enshrined in the EU Birds Directive to achieve a favourable conservation status for all wild bird species and to take appropriate measures to that end.

The fate of the grey partridge is a particularly striking example of the appalling implementation of these EU obligations in Germany. As with many other farmland bird species and insects, agriculture distorted by subsidies is robbing the species of its habitat and food sources. Countless scientific studies, pilot projects and proposals over recent years and decades have brought about no change in agricultural policy. We are now demanding legal action by the European Commission so that federal and state governments can no longer simply look the other way.

NABU President Jörg-Andreas Krüger

The NABU president emphasised that it is well known and proven how the grey partridge could be saved, citing studies extensively referenced in the EU complaint. What is lacking, he stressed, is simply the political will to act.

As an important measure, NABU is calling for at least ten percent of agricultural land to be set aside as habitat for the grey partridge and rural biodiversity. This should also become a basic condition for the payment of area subsidies to farming operations in the future. The votes by agricultural ministers and the European Parliament on the future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), scheduled for October, offer an opportunity to establish this across the EU. If this fails, Germany must enact national regulations — otherwise a ruling by the European Court of Justice is at risk. NABU is appealing to Agricultural Minister Julia Klöckner and her counterparts in the federal states not to lead agriculture into yet another conflict with EU justice with eyes wide open, following the disaster over fertilizer regulations.

The grey partridge is a typical farmland bird that once occurred throughout all of Germany's agricultural landscapes. There may have been as many as three million pairs in the 1950s. What remains is a meagre remnant of between 21,000 and 37,000 pairs — roughly one percent of the former population. Essential for the survival of grey partridges are uncut and unsprayed areas where females can nest well hidden from predators such as foxes, and insect-rich wildflower areas where the up to 20 chicks per clutch can find sufficient food. Such areas are becoming increasingly rare. As a result, the current breeding success of these birds is no longer sufficient to sustain the population.

Ornithologists from Switzerland shocked bird lovers across Europe this year: in their country, the grey partridge is now considered extinct.

The decline of the grey partridge is not only a loss for all people who can no longer experience this bird — it is above all a warning signal for the absence of insects and wild plants in an overly intensively farmed landscape. The natural balance has been thrown into disarray here, because pesticides may be able to control pests, but they cannot replace a functioning ecosystem.

Lars Lachmann, Head of Bird Conservation at NABU.

According to NABU's assessment, a favourable conservation status would require at least 335,000 grey partridge pairs once again. While the federal states are already implementing initial protection measures for the grey partridge, rescuing the species would require this to be done on an area at least twenty times larger than at present.