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There are multiple factors causing the decline in bird population, but I'd like to focus on a single one: deforestation. Trees provide so many different functio
by ciconia 3y ago
There are multiple factors causing the decline in bird population, but I'd like to focus on a single one: deforestation. Trees provide so many different functions for birds (as for other animals, and for humans too), both directly and indirectly: shelter, fruits, a cooling effect in summer, and most importantly, they act as an entire ecosystem for insects and caterpillars. You remove the tree, you remove the insects, and you remove caterpillars which are a staple food for baby birds.
So yeah, deforestation + pesticides = less birds, and will lead to a desertification of Europe in more than one sense. But even in the desert you can find here and there an oasis, a place full of life where birdsong is just as vigorous as ever. There are still many places across Europe where this is happening, many oases (plural?) that teem with life, and bring happiness to the heart. In fact, this is not so difficult to do, just bring back the trees and the biodiversity, then the insects will return, and when the insects are there, birds will return.
Build it and they will come.
It is high time we change our agricultural practices from destructive to regenerative. The techniques are already well known, and pioneering work in this field of regenerative practices have been going on for decades already - from Yeomans, Molisson, and Holmgren in Australia to Fukuoka in Japan and Goetsch in Brasil, the knowledge is there.
I live with my family on a small piece of land where we work to increase biodiversity and to reforest. Every year, birdsong gets louder and louder. I know it's possible and my garden is proof. Build it and they will come.
- bryanlarsen 3y agoEurope has a lot more trees today than it had 100 years ago.
- have_faith 3y agoWhat makes 100 years ago a good point of reference? as opposed to a date pre-industrial revolution maybe.
- ajsnigrutin 3y agoBecause we didn't measure (count?) the number of birds then, and we've been noticing a decline in the last few decades.
- ciconia 3y agoI would say there's a difference between a fir Douglas plantation and a multi-species forest. The two are not ecologically equivalent. At least around where I live (department 71 in France), there are less and less forests and more and more tree plantations. I think it would be interesting to look at how much biodiverse forests we have now compared to 100 years ago. I might be proven wrong.
- Fiahil 3y agoLike siblings said : it's not a good benchmark, as forests were not exploited as much before. In fact, almost all forests are exploited in some way or another. Some recently protected primal old growth will take a few centuries to recover. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old-growth_forest https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old-growth_forest "The world has 1.11 billion ha of primary forest remaining.[when?] Combined, three countries (Brazil, Canada, and Russia) host more than half (61 percent) of the world's primary forest. The area of primary forest has decreased by 81 million ha since 1990, but the rate of loss more than halved in 2010–2020 compared with the previous decade."