It is the first time that the recovery of a protected species has been suspended in Spain due to wind turbines
It was a program subsidized with European funds
“Renewables yes, but not at any price”. It is the rallying cry launched by environmental organizations. They maintain that the transition, in addition to energy, must be “necessarily compatible with the Spanish natural heritage”. And it is not being in all cases. The last example: the suspension of the LIFE project for the reintroduction of osprey in El Maestrazgo (Teruel) for the damage caused to the species by the massive deployment of wind power.
It is the first case in Spain of suspension of a project to reintroduce an endangered species due to the wind industry. One study has calculated that the specimens present in the area could impact the projected wind turbines up to 756 times in just one year.
The Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture (FCQ), in agreement with the environmental authorities, has been forced to provisionally suspend the execution in El Maestrazgo of the European LIFE project ‘Iberian runners for the bearded vulture’.
The decision means interrupting, at least momentarily, the release of specimens in the Teruel region until the final dimension of the planned wind cluster is clarified.
“The high risk of collision and death to which the projected deployment would expose the species makes it unaffordable to continuesince the criteria for the reintroduction of species threatened with extinction established by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) would be breached, as well as the environmental guarantee criteria contemplated in the LIFE projects, of European financing”, laments the FCQ .
Two experts from the Foundation, attached to the LIFE project, analyzed for months the flight patterns and use of space in El Maestrazgo of 10 bearded vultures released in Castellón and Aragón and 12 radio-marked griffon vultures in the epicenter of the projected wind cluster.
Population in the process of disappearance
The study of the geolocations provided by the satellite beacon carried by each specimen offers results that have set off all the alarms: in just one year, bearded vultures could collide up to 745 times with the projected wind turbines, which would mean the total disappearance of the incipient population.
The risk increases even more when verifying that bearded vultures flew 35,137 times within a kilometer radius of future industrial complexes, while vultures did so some 26,500 times.
In addition to risk simulations, the study also collects and analyzes official data on wildlife mortality in wind complexes. The problem that the FCQ has found is the low level of commitment and the opacity of some autonomous communities.
Thus, they contrast the complete reports delivered by the governments of Aragon (5,264 birds and bats killed in 2017-2022) and Navarra (1,253 deaths in the same period), both regions with a high wind implantation, with those provided by Galicia: barely five deaths despite the fact that in 2021 it added almost as many wind turbines as Aragon and Navarra together (4,002 wind turbines in Galicia, 2,804 in Aragon and 1,286 in Navarra). Other communities have not even provided data.
The LIFE project ‘Iberian runners for bearded vultures’ was presented in 2020 with the aim of ensure the long-term conservation of the species in Europeby recovering their extinct populations in high quality areas for the species in central and northern Spain.
Based on the habitat analysis, the historical review and the intense preparatory work carried out for more than 20 years, one of the territories with “high suitability” for the execution of the project turned out to be the area of El Maestrazgo de Teruel.
The survival of birds, compromised
“El Maestrazgo stands out for its habitat with high potential, the abundance of trophic resources, the numerous historical appointments and the low presence of threats to the species. All of this makes the territory an important node in the metapopulation context of the bearded vulture in the Iberian Peninsula”, highlights the FCQ.
Thus, in January 2022 the project began, financed by the LIFE community instrument, and the first release of specimens in the area, in order to generate a stable population nucleus and meet the project objectives.
Two years after the drafting of this project, on December 23, 2022, the environmental impact statement for El Maestrazgo was published, and that same year, with the excuse of the climate emergency derived from the war in Ukrainea royal decree was published that triggered “precipitately”, the approval of “a wind industrial macro-project in El Maestrazgo, even in areas of the Natura 2000 Network, which severely compromises the survival of the bird community present in the area in northeastern Spain“, warns the FCQ.
In the area of El Maestrazgo, 13 wind complexes are projected, and another 62 in contiguous regions (34 projects in Cuencas Mineras, 19 in Andorra-Sierra de Arcos and 9 in Matarraña).
All this means that the reintroduction area of the species will have a high implantation of wind turbines. Elements that will have a 158-meter blade and that will occupy crests and hills, coinciding exactly in the same space where one of the best communities of birds of prey in all of Europe fly, which will mean “a serious and insurmountable threat to reintroduced specimens“, predicts the Foundation.
Hasty deployment of wind complexes
According to the FCQ studies and the mortality data collected in the Aragon and Navarra wind farms, The fact that 367 wind turbines can be installed around the bearded vulture release point makes it impossible to achieve the objective of recovering the species. Even more so if one takes into account that these installations require long-distance evacuation power lines.
The FCQ has called for deep reflection and debate. “Spain has been the recipient of significant amounts for years to recover threatened habitats and biodiversity. It is contradictory that now, with a hasty and unprecedented deployment of wind farms in Europeone of the greatest threats to biodiversity is implanted in those same habitats and a model opposed to the objective of recapitalizing the rural environment“, highlights the Foundation.
“It is not acceptable that in order to solve a problem of production and contamination another one is generated as it is compromising the survival of the Spanish avifauna. Even more so when there are innovative technological measures and complex management procedures that considerably reduce bird mortality. Measures that, for the moment, the Spanish administration is not demanding from the developer companies,” criticizes the FCQ.
The LIFE project ‘Iberian runners for the bearded vulture’, directed by Gerardo Báguena, has as beneficiaries associated with the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge and the Associação Naturaleza y Hombre Portugal (ANYH).
It will last five years (until 2027) and has a budget of 2,678,434 euros. The LIFE financial instrument will contribute 1,507,869 euros. The regional governments of Aragon, Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla y León, as well as National Parks and Endesa are co-financiers.
LIFE project website ‘Iberian runners for bearded vultures’: https://lifeprobv.quebrantahuesos.org/
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Contact of the Environment section: [email protected]