Agricultural intensification has affected wildlife across Europe, triggering steep declines and regional extinctions of farmland birds. Effective conservation activities are essential for the preservation of biodiversity in an agricultural landscape, but current efforts have not succeeded in halting these declines. Here we investigate a ground-nesting shorebird, the collared pratincole Glareola pratincola, which has shifted its habitat use in Central Europe over the last 20 years from alkaline grasslands to intensively managed agricultural fields. We show that nesting success was different between three agricultural habitat types, with the highest nesting success in fallow lands and the lowest in row crops. Nesting success was also associated with the timing of breeding and breeding density, as nests produced early in the breeding season and those in high-breeding-density areas hatched more successfully than those produced later in the season and at low density. We implemented direct conservation measures including marking nests and negotiating with farmers to avoid cultivating the field between nest markers, controlling nest predators and, most recently, creating suitable nesting sites and foraging areas for pratincoles. As a result of these conservation actions, nest survival increased from 11.2% to 83.5% and the size of the breeding population increased from 13 to 56 pairs during 2012–2021. Thus, we show that agricultural landscapes can continue to provide suitable habitats, and targeted conservation actions have the potential to reverse the declines of farmland species.

Invasive alien species can have widespread negative effects on native biodiversity. We investigated the prospects of engaging hunters in large-scale collaborative efforts to control non-native mink Neovison vison populations in Norway. We invited members of the Norwegian Association of Hunters and Anglers to complete an online questionnaire to ascertain their support for conservation and their level of effort to remove mink, in the context of hunting motivations and bounty payments. The general interest in mink control programmes was low but participants perceived the mink to be of conservation concern. Bounty payments influenced mink catches, with hunters who received payments catching a mean of 4.70 more individuals per hunter than those who did not receive payments (P < 0.001). Mink hunters who preferred to hunt alone and had no preference for hunting locally reportedly caught on average 1.87 more mink per hunter than those who preferred to hunt in company (P < 0.001). The majority of hunters preferred government-led programmes (47%), and investment in bounty programmes (52%) was their main recommendation to improve mink hunting. Hunters can be a valuable component of a mink removal task force and could decrease the likelihood of recolonization of mink in the buffer areas of core conservation target areas.

Habitat change has major effects on wildlife and it is important to understand how wild animals respond to changing habitats. Dashanbao National Nature Reserve, in north-east Yunnan, China, which was established for the protection of the black-necked crane Grus nigricollis, other wintering waterbirds and the upland wetland ecosystem, recently began converting farmland to grassland and woodland. With respect to this policy we studied habitat selection by black-necked cranes in the Reserve from November 2006 to April 2007. Farmland, grassland, marsh and water were used by black-necked cranes but no cranes occurred in man-made woodland. Black-necked cranes showed the least preference for grassland and no significant differences were detected in the species’ preference for the other three habitats. However, black-necked cranes exhibited different behavioural responses to the four habitats: farmland and grassland were their main foraging sites. Principle component analysis verified that a foraging-related component was the first factor determining habitat selection. Cranes used habitat close to their roosts with short grass, shallow water and less disturbance by human activity. Our results indicate that the policy of converting farmland and grassland to woodland is not beneficial for conservation of the crane. For effective conservation of the black-necked crane scientific habitat management that takes into account habitat selection by the species is required, with the retention of some farmland and restoration of wetlands.

Illegal fishing has detrimental environmental and social impacts, but these effects are difficult to mitigate without reliable estimates of fisher non-compliance. Methods used by fisheries managers to estimate illegal fishing often require indirect estimation of poaching using biological, economic or sociological indicators. This study presents a unique application of the randomized response technique (RRT) for direct estimation of non-compliance in fisheries to the Northern California recreational red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) fishery. An anonymous paper-based compliance and sociodemographic survey of recreational fishers in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties estimated 29% non-compliance with the daily take limit, 23% with the minimum size limit, 19% with licensing laws and 15% with the annual take limit. RRT results also indicated how different sociodemographic characteristics related to non-compliance. Visitors had higher non-compliance rates than local fishers for all regulations except daily take limits, which an estimated 72% of locals violated versus 18% of visitors. High fisher awareness of regulations, fisher age, income and fishing experience did not appear to influence illegal take. RRT is a powerful tool which can aid conservation managers in prioritizing action.

Considerable resources and efforts have been directed at biodiversity conservation in recent years, but measures of the success of conservation programmes have been limited. Based on information on population sizes, trends, threatening processes and the nature and intensity of conservation actions implemented during 1994–2004, we assessed that 16 bird species would have probably become extinct during this period if conservation programmes for them had not been undertaken. The mean minimum population size of these 16 species increased from 34 to 147 breeding individuals during 1994–2004. In 1994, 63% of them had declining populations but by 2004, 81% were increasing. Most of these species (63%) are found on islands. The principal threats that led to their decline were habitat loss and degradation (88%), invasive species (50%) and exploitation (38%), a pattern similar to that for other threatened species, but with exploitation and invasive species being relatively more important. The principal actions carried out were habitat protection and management (75% of species), control of invasive species (50%), and captive breeding and release (33%). The 16 species represent only 8.9% of those currently classified as Critically Endangered, and 1.3% of those threatened with extinction. Many of these additional species slipped closer to extinction during 1994–2004, including 164 that deteriorated in status sufficiently to be uplisted to higher categories of extinction risk on the IUCN Red List (IUCN, 2006). Efforts need to be considerably scaled up to prevent many more extinctions in the coming decades. The knowledge and tools to achieve this are available, but we need to mobilize the resources and political will to apply them.