FrieslandCampina focuses on meadow bird management

Zuivelcoöperatie FrieslandCampina, in collaboration with the Vogelbescherming and the BoerenNatuur foundation, is setting up a separate foundation to collect and redistribute money for meadow bird management. Hein Schumacher, the CEO of FrieslandCampina, reported this on Thursday 27 June at a meeting in Leeuwarden.

Agricultural entrepreneurs with plans for meadow bird management can register and thus receive money from the pot. The money in this 'pot' is collected by contributions from, for example, catering and catering companies that want to indicate that they are committed to meadow bird management. The CEO of the dairy cooperative reports that concrete agreements have already been made with a number of large national customers. "These parties purchase dairy products from us and want to demonstrate that they contribute to the conservation of meadow birds."

The Foundation for the Preservation of meadow birds was only recently established and that means that the plans are still being worked out. That is also the reason that Schumacher does not yet want to indicate which customers of the dairy are involved. It is also not yet known how many agricultural entrepreneurs can submit their plans and how much money can be distributed.

Suggest tests
Wiebren van Stralen, the program maker at FrieslandCampina, does lift a corner of the veil. He states that any member who is already demonstrably committed to meadow birds or has additional plans can report. The foundation then tests these proposals and distributes the available money.

"That is already several tons (on an annual basis) and we are expected to have a pot of more than €1 million available," says Van Stralen. "Per plan and farmer, a contribution of €5.000 to €10.000 should be considered."

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