Agri-environmental schemes for the Common hamster (Cricetus cricetus). Why is the Dutch project Successful?

The Common hamster (Cricetus cricetus) is a rodent, which inhabits arable land across Europe. Over the last decades, West European populations declined with more then 95%, which resulted in numerous local and regional extinctions. In the Netherlands the species went extinct in the wild in 2002, but the same year a research and reintroduction programme was started. The combination of research on the ecology of the species, monitoring, and translation of the results into practical Agri-environmental schemes (AES), resulted in a rapid population growth over the last 7 years. The Dutch project is one of the few projects in Europe which shows positive results of AES on the target species.