Environment’s Ministry participates in a workshop dedicated to the impact of electric infrastructures on threatened raptors

The aim of this training activity is the correction of dangerous electrical lines for birds in North Africa.

Technicians from the Ministry of the Environment and Land Planning participated in Tarifa (Cadiz) in a training workshop organized by the Center for Cooperation in the Mediterranean of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (UICN-Med ) on mitigating the impact of electric infrastructures on threatened raptors. The objective of this activity is to transfer the knowledge acquired in Spain and the European Union regarding the identification, adaptation and correction of dangerous electric air lines for birds, in order to promote actions that reduce the effect Negative impact of these infrastructures on biodiversity in North Africa.

During these days, the representatives of the council will explain the regional regulations on the protection of birds and their application in these cases. Methods will also be given for the identification of areas for concentration of dangerous lines for avifauna, as well as the keys to identify electrocution and collision as the cause of death.

Technical indications will also be offered for the installation of new electrical infrastructures and the current situation in South Africa, Algeria and Morocco will be known. Likewise, the actions of some NGOs will be presented, as well as the work of detection of risk areas in North Africa carried out by different scientific entities.

This workshop will also involve technicians from the various public administrations related to nature protection, members of species conservation NGOs, workers in electricity and energy companies, as well as scientists.

The Strait of Gibraltar is one of the most important migration routes for birds around the world. In fact, more than 560,000 individuals of about 300 species pass through it each year. Of these species, 40 are threatened with extinction and their populations are particularly affected by electrocution deaths and collision with electric lines.

It should be noted that during the last decades the Junta de Andalucia and the electricity companies have been working with satisfactory results to correct the impacts caused by the power lines in the avifauna in general and in raptors particularly.