Decades of conservation plans and millions of euros in subsidies have failed to prevent the decline of the black-tailed godwit, according to Dutch government auditors.

Farmers received €33.4m in 2020 for measures to protect meadow birds such as the godwit, known as ‘grutto’ in Dutch, up from €4.2m in 2001. In that time the population has halved to 30,000 breeding pairs.

The national audit office (Algemene Rekenkamer) singled out the black-tailed godwit because half of the global population lives in the Netherlands. The bird is listed as a near-threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Auditors said the agriculture ministry was not keeping track of how the €400 million handed out in the last 20 years by the state, provinces and European Union had been spent.

Only around 15% of the land suitable for meadow birds had been adapted and farmers tended to limit their efforts to protecting the birds’ nests, rather than more comprehensive measures such as raising the water level or creating marshland areas.

‘In the opinion of the audit office farmers are not lacking in input, but the minister should do more to help them exploit the opportunities to increase the number of breeding pairs of black-tailed godwits,’ the audit office said.