Germany: Baking bread to protect endangered lark species

Germany launched the original Lerchenbrot project to find a balance between agricultural production and biodiversity conservation Wheat fields and larks actually have more in common than the average layman might think, writes Eva Piepenbrock in an article on f3.de. Skylarks love to nest in cropland, but birds need free plots for this, so German farmers participating in the Lerchenbrot project create so-called “skylark windows” in their wheat fields, but not for free. The wheat that surrounds the bird nesting site is used to make bread with a surcharge of ten euro cents for the consumer. Thus, the buyer is investing in biodiversity. The project, initiated in the southern Palatinate by the agrochemical company BASF, together with four farmers, a mill and a bakery, aims to show that productive agriculture and the promotion of biodiversity are not mutually exclusive. “We want to find a balance between high yields and species protection,” says Markus Röser, Head of Communications and ...