Like numerous marshes, the Rhine area in between France and also Germany is dealing with a decrease in biodiversity.
This is why the cross-border Ramsar Biodiversity job is being performed to secure endangered animal varieties, like the owl of Athena, which virtually entirely disappeared from the area 25 years earlier.
This scenario was triggered, partly, by the steady loss of orchards, and also their dental caries trees, that this certain owl suches as to nest in.
Nevertheless, today the owl of Athena is doing far better many thanks to the fruit trees that were grown and also the thousands of nesting boxes set up.
Dominique Bersuder is a volunteer at the Bird Defense Organization (LPO). He informs us that they currently approximate the variety of owl sets around Alsace to be around 700. In the 1990s, there were just 150. According to him, the owl of Athena” s rebirth is “many thanks to the initiatives of volunteers that are enthusiastic regarding this owl”. He includes that “they have actually made it feasible to conserve this varieties and also aid its populace expand”.
6 varieties have actually been picked for the Ramsar Biodiversity job which covers Germany and also France. They consist of the owl of Athena, the north lapwing, the water rail, the usual tern, Bechstein’s bat and also the European tree frog.
The job’s complete spending plan is EUR1.2 million, fifty percent of which is moneyed by the European Union.
The north lapwing is a marsh bird whose numbers have actually decreased as a result of its all-natural environment being changed and also drained pipes for farming.
For this bird, a variety of anxieties have actually been dug along the sides of farming land producing fish ponds that provide the lapwing accessibility to larvae and also arthropods. They aid promote its recreation.
Cathy Zell, the growth and also interaction policeman at the LPO, states that “we have to constantly keep in mind that life belongs to a big food web, so if there is a lapwing, there have to be food for this lapwing, which eats particular plants”. She advises us that we remain in “a practical environment, and also us human beings belong to this excellent biodiversity.”
Birds have no boundaries and also on the German side of the Rhine, boatings have actually been embraced by usual terns.
This migratory bird typically types on stony coastlines, risk-free from killers. Sadly, these type of coastlines have actually vanished with the canalisation of the Rhine.
Mare Haider, an ornithologist at the Bühl Institute for Ecology and also Nature Preservation, informs us that “the usual tern is a varieties that has the exact same issue on both sides of the Rhine, specifically that it no more discovers all-natural reproducing premises in our nations”.
Environmentalists urge that we require to quickly change our farming techniques to think about birds which likewise play an essential function in farming.
