Small Grant Fund

Supporting bird monitoring initiatives in low and middle-income countries across Europe since 2023

Supporting and strengthening bird monitoring initiatives across Europe is crucial for collecting evidence-based data to guide relevant on-the-ground policy and conservation actions. By collecting data on where birds occur, how many there are, and how these patterns and trends change over time for both individual species and species groups, we provide scientifically sound evidence to measure changes in our environments.

Monitoring is essential tool in assessing environmental policy and the effectiveness of conservation measures, and birds are widely regarded as good indicator group for overall environmental health.

We therefore need high-quality standardised bird data from across Europe. Unfortunately, bird monitoring activities in Europe are clearly geographically biased, and gaps in monitoring data still exist at the continental level. The EBCC Board has therefore recognised the need to support partner organisations in low- and middle-income European countries in the development of monitoring schemes as a key activity to bridge this knowledge gap.

Since 2023, we have been supporting EBCC partners through the Small Grant Fund (SGF) in their monitoring activities. Read more about how you can join in making a difference for bird monitoring in Europe, the projects we have supported in the past, and application to the SGF.