The main purpose of this project is to create guilds within a defined area of a minimum og 1.000-1.500 hectares, where farmers, ornithologists, hunters, beekeepers etc. work together to manage their land in the optimal way for wildlife, with the primary focus of partridge and hares.
Each landowner can participate the amount he or she wants. No one is obligated to take farmland out of production. Each guild is linked to a professional wildlife manager who works at the Danish hunters association. Each landowner in the guild can receive free counsel on how to improve their terrain. To ensure backing of the project, a group of the main actors in farmland management in Denmark was seated to discuss the ground principles for the project.
The group came up with five ground principles: Volunteerism ? participation is voluntary, no one is forces/bound to do anything. The landowners participates because they want to, not because they are forced to. They are free to participate and they are free to leave at any time.
Focus on nature and habitats ? to ensure a long term effect, this project focusses on creating, improving and maintaining enough suitable habitats, to ensure a sustainable reproduction of farmland wildlife.
The main idea is to use the natural occurring partridges to ensure the base of the new population. It?s essential that there are no releasing of partridges or hares in the project areas. Monitoring of populations ? to qualify the effort of habitat improvements, the local volunteers are monitoring the populations of hare and partridges by using a method called distance sampling. Free professional counselling ? we offer free counselling for the participants of the project on how to improve their farmlands to meet the demands as a suitable a habitat. Cooperation and synergy ? the foundation of this project is the cooperation between landowners across field boundaries and interests.
The local Hunters are often the main drivers in the guilds, while the farmers are important to get things done. By working together in guilds, they can help each other by improving the habitats on farmland areas.
Country: Denmark
Starting date: 2013
Species: Lepus Europaeus (Brown Hare) And Perdix Perdix (Grey Partridge)
Species characteristics: Huntable species, Protected species, Threatened species, Abundant species, Migratory species, Invasive Alien species
Type of actions: Management of habitats and wildlife, Research and data collection, Communication, Policy work
Leading partners: The Danish Hunters Association - http://www.jaegerforbundet.dk/
