Emberiza calandra Š Luis Barrón
BIRDS IN FARMLAND HABITATS
BIRDS IN FARMLAND HABITATS Modern farming methods are the cause of conservation problems for many birds in Spain.
M
an's use of the land for arable and livestock farming is so long-established and it has been so closely associated with the distribution of the human population in Europe, that it is difficult to find a region, however small or remote, where this activity has never been developed. Even today, taking into account the seasonally grazed areas, almost 80% of the Spanish land surface has some kind of agricultural use, conditioning the characteristics of the habitat. However, the degree and type of agricultural use is highly variable and the dividing line between agricultural and natural is, in many cases, almost imperceptible. In recent decades, technological advances, changes in social expectations, and, especially, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have determined the development of agricultural activity in two opposite ways: intensification, in the most productive areas or those with the best transport links, and abandonment, in extensive, less fertile or more isolated areas.
The agricultural area of Spain is the largest with reference to other types of habitats. Currently about 25 million hectares are classified as arable farmland (50% of the land surface), concentrated in the two central plateaux, the Levante area (Eastern Spain, Valencia and Murcia) and the valleys of the large rivers. The rest is dominated by grassland or extensive livestock rearing.
18 CONSERVATION STATUS OF BIRD IN SPAIN IN 2010
