SEO-Birdlife: When a key stakeholder acts as environmental consultancy, The Monlora III wind farm (V)

MITIGATION STRATEGY

In the end, we will refer to the mitigation strategy proposed. In the conclusions (one page) they do not provide an overall assessment /conclusion about the risk of the project to birds.

CONCLUSION 1:

Install cameras to detect and shut down the turbines. We must say that there are not currently any device in the market suitable for stopping any turbine and avoid collision with the blades.

SEO-Birdlife mentions the I+D Espartal wind farm in Aragón but any information about this wind farm and the shut down by cameras has been presented or peer-review evaluated to demonstrate it works. Thus, SEO-Birdlife leaves all the probabilities to random chances.

The only device in the market that has similar characteristics is the so-called "DTBird". We must highlight the recent review in the United States by the American Wind and Wildlife Institue, see a summary here DTBIrd evaluation And also the full report here DTBird evaluation full report

Basically, the DTBird has false positives (shutdowns that do not correspond with the target species) and failures in the detection and dissuasion modules that fail in stopping the turbines so endangered species may collide anyway. SEE THE REPORTS FOR THESE TECHNICAL ISSUES. In a conclusion, there is still a long way till these techniques work properly at wind farms to be effective.

CONCLUSION 2:

There is a need for a conservation plan for cliff-nesting raptors as the Bonelli´s eagle and the Egyptian Vulture. 

Referring to cliff-nesting and omitting the roost means is a contradiction by the authors but confirms the potential risk to species that "breed far from the projects" as the review of the SEO-Guidelines confirm. 

CONCLUSION 3:

They recommend fitting satellite transmitters to two Red Kite pairs. This should have to be done during the construction study. First to see what the habitat use is and, secondly to analyze by means of the BACI procedure. Fitting only after a wind farm has been built is only a way to keep a contract with the developer. 

The two other conclusions in the report are related to a conservation plan for the most threatened species and also post-construction monitoring. These ideas should have been developed much longer in the report and not in such a short and poor way.

MISSED REFERENCES

This is a minimum list of missed references in the report by SEO-BirdLife:

Arroyo, B., Ferreiro, E. y Garza, V. 1989. Inventario de la población española de buitre leonado (Gyps fulvus) y sus áreas de cría. Año 1989. Sociedad Española de Ornitología. Informe inédito para ICONA, Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación. Madrid.

Atienza, J.C., I. Martín Fierro, O. Infante, J. Valls and J. Domínguez. 2011. Directrices para la evaluación del impacto de los parques eólicos en aves y murciélagos (versión 3.0). SEO/BirdLife, Madrid (translated into English as Guidelines for Assessing the Impact of Wind Farms on Birds and Bats (Version 4.0).

Bautista, L.M., J. T. García, R. G. Calamaestra, C. palacín, C.A. Martín, M. B. Morales, R. Bonal, J. Viñuela. 2004. Effect of Weekend Road Traffic on the Use of Space by Raptors. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2004.00499.x Cons. Biol.

BOA. 2018. RESOLUCIÓN de 2 de agosto de 2018, del Director General de Energía y Minas, por la que se otorga la autorización administrativa previa y de construcción de instalación "Parque Eólico Monlora III" de 49,5 MW de Fuerzas Energéticas del Sur de Europa X, S.L., en Castejón de Valdejasa, Luna y Sierra de Luna. Fecha de Publicación: 21/08/18. Número de boletín: 161.

Del Moral, J. C. 2002. II Censo Nacional de Alimoche. La Garcilla, 112: 14-19.

Del Moral, J. C. y Martí, R. (Eds.) 2002. El alimoche común en España y Portugal (I censo coordinado). Año 2000. Monografía n.º 8. SEO/BirdLife. Madrid.

Del Moral, J. C. (Ed.). 2009. El buitre leonado en España. Población reproductora en 2008 y método de censo. SEO/BirdLife. Madrid.

Del Moral, J. C. y Martí, R. (Eds.) 2001. El buitre leonado en la Península Ibérica. III Censo Nacional y I Censo Ibérico Coordinado, 1999. Monografía n.º 7. SEO/BirdLife. Madrid.

H. T. Harvey & Associates. 2018. AWWI Technical Report: Evaluating a Commercial-Ready Technology for Raptor Detection and Deterrence at a Wind Energy Facility in California. American Wind Wildlife Institute, Washington, DC, 96 pages. Available at www.awwi.org. © 2018 American Wind Wildlife Institute

Iñigo A., Barov B., Orhun C., Gallo-Orsi U. 2008. Action plan for the Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus in the European Union. SEO BirdLife

IUCN. 2019. The IUCN Red List of threatened species. https://www.iucnredlist.org/ Fecha de consulta: 10 de Octubre de 2019.

Madroño, A., González, C., Atienza, J. C. (Eds.) 2004. Libro Rojo de las Aves de España.Dirección General para la Biodiversidad-SEO/BirdLife.Madrid.

Martí, R. & Del Moral, J. C. (Eds.) 2003. Atlas de las Aves Reproductoras de España. Dirección General de Conservación de la Naturaleza-Sociedad Española de Ornitología. Madrid.

Scottish Natural Heritage. 2014. Recommended bird survey methods to inform impact assessment of onshore wind farms. 37 pp.

SEO 1981. Primer censo de Buitreras (1979). Ardeola, 26/27: 256-259.

SEO/BirdLife 2012. Atlas de las aves en invierno en España 2007-2010. Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente-SEO/BirdLife. Madrid.

 Żmihorski, M., T.H. Sparks, P. Tryjanowski. 2012. The weekend bias in recording rare birds: mechanisms and consequences. Acta Ornithologica, Volume 47, Number 1: 87-94(8)