Greenwood, J.J.D & Carter, N. 2003. Organisation eines nationalen Vogelmonitorings durch den British Trust for Ornithology - Erfahrungsbericht aus Großbritannien. (Organising a national bird monitoring by the BTO-Experiences from Britain.) In: Berichte des Landesamtes für umweltschutz Sachsen-Anhalt. Sonderheft 1/2003 14-26.

Summary: Organizing a national bird monitoring by the BTO - Experiences from Britain.
The British Trust for Ornithology exists to carry out research on bird populations and their habitats using the combined skills of a network of amateurs and a comparatively small team of professional staff. It focuses particularly on applied issues. It began to monitor the population sizes of the commoner species in the British countryside in 1961; it began to monitor breeding success in 1939; it uses bird ringing (which started in 1909 in Britain) not only to study movements but also to monitor survival rates, particularly through some special ringing projects designed for that purpose. The information is brought together in a programme of Integrated Population Monitoring, which aims to understand what is causing changes in populations through demographic modeling. The monitoring is based on the ideas that changes in numbers should be assessed against targets, that it should lead to greater understanding of the causes of undesirable changes, and that its results should be used by those responsible for taking action to reverse undesirable changes. There are special programmes for monitoring birds in gardens, wetland birds, breeding seabirds, game birds, and rare species. Repeated distribution atlases are also used for monitoring.

The complete package of monitoring involves approximately 1.5 million man?hours of work by volunteers and 13 thousand man?days of professional work each year, costing approximately £ 1.3 million. The volunteers have “ownership" of the work because the BTO Council (Board) is elected by them and because they are given much feedback about the results of the work. The internet is increasingly important, both for gathering data and for providing feedback.

The BTO's role is to provide facts, evidence and advice, rather than to advocate particular policies or management solutions. It works hard to communicate its results to the general public, birdwatchers, conservationists and politicians, through newspapers, magazines, scientific publications, reports, and books. It works with conservation bodies and government agencies both in planning its research and in working out the implications of its findings for public policy. As a result, its work on farmland birds in particular has led to major changes in public opinion and government policy in Britain, with the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy as a major objective.

Keywords: bird monitoring, farmland birds, volunteers, United Kingdom

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