2013
Award Winner: Dr. Martin Flade

The 2013 Hans Löhrl Prize was awarded to Dr. Martin Flade for his critical assessment of bird conservation in Germany in his publication

“From the Energy Transition to a Biodiversity Disaster—On the State of Bird Conservation in Germany,” published in *Vogelwelt* 133: 149–158 in 2012.

In this article, Martin Flade issued a stark warning about what is arguably the greatest current challenge facing bird conservation, thereby sparking what we hope will be a fruitful discussion. His assessment of population trends for common breeding bird species in Germany proved disastrous, despite some impressive successes in protecting “flagship species.” As a result of the ill-considered and hasty expansion of renewable energy from agricultural biomass and wind power, the populations of nearly 50% of all bird species have declined significantly. The energy transition is therefore increasingly proving to be one of the greatest threats to biodiversity, and policymakers have failed to define environmental carrying capacities in a timely manner and to plan for possible alternatives.
The fact that long-term national population trends are now available is thanks to the forward-thinking and dedicated efforts of Martin Flade and his colleagues in the DDA’s monitoring projects, as well as a large group of volunteer ornithologists.

Martin Flade began studying breeding bird communities while still a student. For over 35 years now, he has been analyzing long-term changes in bird communities at the regional and supraregional levels and has reported on these findings in several groundbreaking publications. Within his diverse range of activities, he focuses, among other things, on practical nature conservation and landscape ecology, and has become a pioneer in the international conservation of the sedge warbler.