Trappen Lower Austria

Bustards inhabit open steppes, wide grasslands and arable plains with good visibility, little vertical structure and minimal human infrastructure. In Germany, the remaining Great Bustard populations are tied to three core areas in Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt: the Havelländisches Luch, the Belziger Landschaftswiesen and the cross-border Fiener Bruch. These lowlands offer extensive grasslands, low-intensity arable land and undisturbed lekking and breeding areas. The Little Bustard was historically distributed across Central Europe, including parts of Germany, Austria, Czechia and Hungary, but was displaced by agricultural intensification and habitat loss. Today its nearest breeding sites lie on the Iberian Peninsula and in France, which together hold around ninety percent of the European population. The population status of the Great Bustard in Germany is cautiously positive after decades of decline: in 1997 the historic low of only 57 birds was recorded, and consistent conservation work has since allowed the population to recover noticeably. The work is led by the Förderverein Großtrappenschutz e. V. based in Buckow near Nennhausen, working together with the Brandenburg State Bird Protection Office, farmers, foresters, hunting rights holders and authorities in Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt. Core measures include the creation of bustard-friendly, extensively managed plots with fallows, alfalfa and flowering strips, predator-proof fencing around breeding sites, predation management, the rearing of young birds at the protection office's rearing station and reintroductions into the wild. Bundling of overhead power lines and marking of power corridors, reduction of disturbance during the lekking and breeding season, and ecological networking of the three core areas are further pillars of the long-term programme. The protection work forms part of the German federal National Species Protection Programme and is reinforced by international obligations under the Memorandum of Understanding on the conservation of the Central European Great Bustard population within the framework of the Bonn Convention. In practice this means for hunters in bustard areas: no form of hunting takes place, participation in predation management is coordinated with the project partners, careful land and game management respects lekking and chick-rearing periods, and there is active engagement in habitat improvements such as creating fallows and field margins.