Isabelle Chort (Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour)

Isabelle Chort
UMR TRansitions Energétiques et Environnementales
Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, CNRS

Coauthors: Berk Öktem et Aïcha Hasni.

Abstract

We analyse the impact of the  2013 reform of the European Union Common Agricultural Policy  on bird diversity in France. We match bird observations from the French Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) to parcel level information on agricultural land use and type of crops. We exploit the heterogeneous exposure of bird observation sites to the reform depending on their ex-ante  extent of arable area  in a  continuous difference-in-differences approach. We find evidence of an increase in overall bird abundance  after 2015 in sites with a higher ex-ante proportion of arable land, driven by a small number of  generalist species, and no impact on species richness and phylogenetic diversity. A decomposition by diet type suggests that vertebrate eaters were positively impacted by the reform. By contrast, cropland species experienced the most dramatic decline after 2015 in sites with a higher share of arable area. Based on observational data, our findings confirm previous concerns regarding the effectiveness of the 2013 reform in preserving biodiversity.