Isabellapolder Demonstration Site (Belgium)
The Isabellapolder demonstration site is situated next to the Dutch border in the north of the province East Flanders. It is a flat and open landscape with ditches, hedges, tall trees and small and larger watercourses.
The StoryMap
PARTRIDGE: The Isabellapolder Demonstration Site (arcgis.com) - click picture below
Narrative map of our work at Isabellapolder
Common crops are cereals (winter wheat), arable crops (sugar beet and potatoes), maize and grassland. The farms mostly grow mixed arable crops and have livestock and/or pigs. The demo area is 569 hectares with a total of 56 farmers present, of which 16 are participating in the PARTRIDGE project.
Since 2016, our farmers implemented 18 ha of PARTRIDGE flower blocks and 3 beetle banks as extra high-quality habitat for the grey partridge. There is also a good spread of the regular agri-environmental schemes (AES) of the Flemish Land Agency (VLM) at the demonstration site, such as winter food for farmland birds, floristically enhanced grass margins and flower strips. The amount of mesures under the Flemish AES continues to increase every year thanks to the PARTRIDGE project. In 2020, new experimental agri-environmental measures such as a lapwing plot and fallow strip will be tested in the Isabellapolder demo site.
Every year the Flemish partners organise several activities in the demo site, such as public farm walks, field visits and farmer cluster and hunter meetings. In August 2017 for example, the Flemish minister for enviroment and agriculture took part in one of our farm walks. The PARTRIDGE farmers gather once or twice every year to discuss their measures and to get an update of the monitorings results, so that they can further improve their agri-environmental measures.
For more information visit:
https://www.vlm.be/nl/projecten/Paginas/Partridge.aspx
http://www.agrobeheercentrum.be/Projecten/Partridge
https://www.hvv.be/info/projecten/patridge/
Project calendar for Isabellapolder
Contact details
Habitat measures and experiments: Catherine Vanden Bussche Catherine.VandenBussche@vlm.be +3250458135
Farmer cluster group and farm walks: Korneel Verslyppe Korneel.Verslyppe@agrobeheercentrum.be +32470363101
Winter feeding and predator control: Kathleen Vanhuyse kathleen.vanhuyse@hvv.be +3222420045