Birds and Power Lines: From Research to Mitigation of the Conflict in Bulgaria

BIRDS AND POWER LINES: FROM RESEARCH TO MITIGATION MEASURES TO REDUCE THE CONFLICT IN BULGARIA

Dobromir Dobrev dobromir.dobrev@bspb.org Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds / BirdLife Bulgaria Budapest, 7 November 2016

From Protecting power lines from birds to Protecting birds from power lines • During 1970s and 1980s most of the efforts focused on prevention outages of high tension (110 kV, 220 kV) transmission lines

From Protecting power lines from birds to Protecting birds from power lines • First analyses of the power line network and pole types in terms of electrocution hazard carried out in 2002 • Research aimed at identification of species and sites affected and prioritization of mitigation measures • Significant mitigation measures focused on key species (Imperial eagle, Egyptian vulture, Saker, Dalmatian pelican) and sites based on research data have been applied since 2010 • Cooperation between grid operators and NGOs

First steps and challenges in 2002-2005 • Analyses of power line poles indicated that they pose high electrocution risk • Bird electrocutions and collisions was not considered as significant conservation problem due to lack of systematic data • Technical staff of the grid operators did not recognize or neglected the problem

Stoychev&Karafeizov, 2003. Power line design and raptor protection in Bulgaria

First research carried out in key sites for the Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca)

First quantitative results on bird mortality on power lines • Study period September 2004 - December 2005 • 127,8 km 20 kV power lines • 105 dead birds from 21 species, 77.1% electrocuted

Falconiformes

23%

29%

20%

21%

Ciconiiformes Passeriformes Coraciiformes

7%

Demerdzhiev, D., S. Stoychev, Tz. Petrov, Iv. Angelov, N.Nedyalkov. 2009. Impact of power lines on bird mortality in Southern Bulgaria. Acta Zoologica Bulgarica

Corvide

The real number of fatalities is much higher!

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www.SaveRaptors.org

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Save the Raptors LIFE+ project The Survey • 25 overhead power lines • 204,1 km • 6 Natura 2000 sites / SPAs • April 2009 - January 2010 • 292 fatalities • 68,5 % electrocution • 31,5 % collision

www.SaveRaptors.org

Mortality caused by electrocution and collision

Electrocution Collision

www.SaveRaptors.org

Electrocution fatalities

www.SaveRaptors.org

Collision fatalities

Demerdzhiev D. 2014. Factors Influencing bird mortality caused by power lines within special protected areas and undertaken Conservation efforts. Acta Zoologica Bulgarica

www.SaveRaptors.org

Which poles are most hazardous?

• Over 10,000 hazardous poles within the 27 Imperial Eagle breeding territories

Imperial Eagle satellite telemetry – 27 tagged individuals

www.SaveRaptors.org

67% of tagged juvenile IE have been electrocuted

www.SaveRaptors.org

595 poles within Imperial Eagle breeding territories have been insulated.

www.SaveRaptors.org

The NATURA 2000 Award 2014 CONSERVATION CATEGORY • Insulating Electricity Grid To Secure Hunting and Breeding Grounds of Imperial Eagles

Developed collaboration and trust resulted in a larger project • EVN Bulgaria and BSPB started LIFE for Safe Grid project • Budget: 2, 576 011 euro provided by EVN Bulgaria, EC provides 1,399 716 euro • 50 km of 20 kV overhead power lines will be converted into underground cable • 15 km of bare cables will be replaced with insulated ones • 2,740 poles will be retrofitted with insulation caps • The project sustains and multiplies the results of the current efforts securing over 80% of the Bulgarian Imperial eagle population www.LifeForSafeGrid.bg

Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) • Globally threatened raptor • Often perch on power line poles • National population decreases from 57 to 26 pairs for 10 years

The Return of the Neophron LIFE+ project

• 9,489 poles mapped within 39 EV territories in Bulgaria and Greece • 5,580 hazardous poles identified (4,017 in Bulgaria and 1,563 in Greece) – research methodology available in English • 4,663 potentially hazardous poles mapped around known congregation sites in Afar, Ethiopia, where the highest known congregation of wintering EVs in Africa exists www.LifeNeophron.eu

The Return of the Neophron LIFE+ project • Until now 105 hazardous poles have been insulated.

• In 2015 over 200 poles are retrofitted.

www.LifeNeophron.eu

Sudanese “killer line” switched off

• The power line from Port Sudan to the Red Sea coast has been switched off.

• This decisive action by the Sudanese government and power company officials follows years of work by BSPB (BirdLife in Bulgaria), BirdLife Migratory Soaring Birds project and the Sudanese Wildlife Society. www.LifeNeophron.eu

Saker (Falco cherrug) • Globally threatened falcon • On the brink of extinction in Bulgaria • Two satellite tagged Sakers spending the winter in Bulgaria dye due to electrocution

www.sakerlife2.mme.hu

Saker Falcon LIFE+ project in HU, SK, RO and BG • 440 poles have been insulated in important Saker Falcon staging and wintering areas in NE Bulgaria in collaboration with Energo-Pro

www.sakerlife2.mme.hu

Migration routes and migration bottle neck 200,000 White Storks cross Bulgaria each autumn

www.BurgasLakes.org

Many of them never leave the country‌ www.BurgasLakes.org

LIFE for the Burgas Lakes project • Bottleneck site along Via Pontica bird migration route • Targeting globally threatened Dalmatian pelican and other water birds • Large city with industrial areas and dense grid of power lines • Concentration of large numbers of water birds around the lakes

www.BurgasLakes.org

www.BurgasLakes.org

www.BurgasLakes.org

796 diverters installed to prevent collision

www.BurgasLakes.org

60 poles insulated around Burgas Lakes

Raising awareness and advocacy • Bird electrocution and collisions is recognized as a significant problem by environmental authorities and grid operators • Established cooperation between BSPB and electric grid operators ESO, EVN, ENERGO– PRO and CEZ • Ministry of Environment and Water organized meeting and initiate discussion on introducing regulation about converting of electric infrastructure hazardous for wild birds • Grid operator started to invest their own recourses into retrofitting medium voltage (20 kV) power lines

Summarizing our achievements 10 years of work changed the perceptions on bird and power lines problems 5 projects 3850 insulated poles 50 km underground lines 15 km PAS 760 deflectors Thousands of birds saved from electrocution and collisions.

Work in most priority areas for globally threatened birds in Bulgaria.

Effective collaboration between nature protection organization and electric companies.

Challenges and next steps • Insulated poles are less that 1% of the 20kV power line grid • Between 15,000 and 30,000 poles have to be retrofitted urgently in order to safeguard the population of most threatened raptors!

• There is no regulation to built bird friendly power lines – no implementation of Recommendation 110 of Bern convention on minimizing adverse effects of above-ground electricity • Develop New projects in key Important Bird Areas / Natura 2000 sites • Advocate for: – National standards for safe power lines – Burying of all lines within Natura 2000 sites and conflict areas outside SPAs/SCIs – Introduction of new regulation for gradual replacement/removal of electric infrastructure hazardous for wild birds

Many thanks to LIFE program, Whitley Fund for Nature and ‌ Svetoslav Spasov Dr. Dimitar Demerdzhiev Vladimir Dobrev Dr. Stoyan Nikolov Dr. Petar Iankov Anna Staneva Yurii Kornilev Vladimir Mladenov and to all BSPB volunteers!

Thank you for your attention!

Dobromir Dobrev E-mail: dobromir.dobrev@bspb.org

www.bspb.org NatureImages.eu