In 2024, we revised the FPK’s herzien. This was done in collaboration with Altenburg & Wymenga and Bestia et Lex.
What was the issue?
BIJ12 is the owner of the FPK’s. These toolkits are designed to assist land users in selecting appropriate measures to prevent wildlife damage caused by various animal species. Land users are responsible for preventing or mitigating damage to their agricultural crops caused by protected animals. The FPK’s outline the preventive measures that must be taken to qualify for compensation for wildlife damage. However, the kits were outdated and required a revision of the measures, along with an expansion to improve their practical applicability and legal compatibility.
How Did We Approach This?
To effectively meet the needs, we collaborated (again) with the ecological consultancy Altenburg & Wymenga. Additionally, Bestia et Lex provided guidance regarding legal and regulatory aspects. The FPK’s were revised based on up-to-date knowledge in the areas of ecological effectiveness, practical applicability, and legal compliance. Both the preventive measures from the old FPK’s and new innovative solutions were evaluated. This evaluation was grounded in scientific research, expert assessments, and practical experiences shared by farmers. Measures that failed to sufficiently deter the damaging species or showed a high habituation rate were removed from the FPK’s.
A noteworthy part of our approach was the close involvement of farmers. They contributed by sharing their practical experiences and by testing the revised FPK’s. For this task, the farmers were compensated for their time and effort.
To enhance clarity, we included images illustrating how measures are applied in practice. For instance, the example of a mesh fence for deterring beavers is shown below.
Results
The 20 new FPK’s have now been published and will come into effect as part of the compensation policy for wildlife damage starting November 1, 2024. Each FPK outlines the ecological effectiveness, practical applicability, and legal compliance of the effective measures. The practical applicability section provides a detailed breakdown of the time investment, costs, and maintenance required for each measure. A summary table has been created for each FPK to help land users select measures based on ecological effectiveness, time commitment, and costs (see the table in the top right corner).
One example of a measure that has been removed from the new FPK’s is the use of flags and ribbons to deter geese. It has been proven that this method does not effectively scare off the damaging species, and habituation occurs quickly. As a result, this measure is no longer required for eligibility for compensation for wildlife damage. On the other hand, other measures have proven to be effective, such as scarecrows with acoustic and moving parts and the BirdAlert system. These measures effectively deter damaging species and have been included in the new FPK’s.
A new measure to prevent damage from beavers is the application of sand paint (Wöbra) to trees. After BIJ12 published the new FPK’s, it was quickly reported in the news that this method is also being used by Rijkswaterstaat. It’s great to see that the new FPK’s are already proving valuable!
