On this site you will find:
• Tools and techniques for the revitalisation of farmland biodiversity • Information and advice on restoring grey partridge • Links to Perdix projects in your own country and language • Free mapping tools to record your progress and adapt to change.
Why is this project important?
Wild plants provide cover for nesting partridges, seed for them to eat, and insects to feed their young. Modern harvesting, and the use of herbicides and pesticides, takes these away.
The loss of nature has crept up on us gradually. With government payments to support food production, hedges were removed to make bigger fields for more efficient machinery. Rough land around farm buildings was lost as these became offices. Biocides cleaned wild plants and insects from farmland, with road verges sprayed to sanitise these too or mowed to aid visibility for increasing traffic.
Modern farming practices have removed habitats and food sources that once supported a huge variety of wildflowers, insects, animals and birds. Those who live with the land have witnessed declines in once-common species like the grey partridge (Perdix perdix). Diverse communities of people across Europe are now working together in an effort to restore the grey partridge and bring back the rich habitats that support it. The Perdix Portal is the hub for that cooperation.
The Grey Partridge was once common but has disappeared across much of Europe due to changes in farming. Efficient modern harvesters leave no cereal seeds on stubbles as winter food. Huge fields sprayed repeatedly with herbicides lose their wild plants, which are another seed source in winter and are essential for healthy insect stocks to feed partridge chicks in summer. Increased use of insecticides further reduced the abundance of chick-food insects. Other changes in farmland also increased the numbers of predators hunting the smaller areas suitable for partridge nests.
Yet field edges can be managed for wild plants and insect predators that control crop-eating insects, as can areas within large fields or at corners hard to reach with large modern machines, to reduce costs of spraying for insect pests. Parks, gardens and road verges can serve as reservoirs for these plants and insects too. So our challenge is, can you manage your local unfarmed areas to bring back the wildflowers, butterflies, bees and even partridges?
By one community, for many communities
The Perdix Portal was started by falconers, but is designed to be used by anyone who wants to see their local landscape teeming with life again. So whether you are a beekeeper, gamekeeper, forager, farmer, birdwatcher, walker or landowner, this site is your resource. Read the pages on habitat restoration, and on re-establishing grey partridge, then download the free mapping tools to record your progress.
On the web
If you would like to help create a Perdix site for your own country, get in touch via the Contact page.
Use the Contact Us page to let us know you are interested in helping with translation or forming a community group.
Understand our ethos from the Bern Convention charters hat were developed by members of European Sustainable Use Group.