NEWS | Wednesday, 22 October 2008

PRINT THIS ARTICLE

Wind farm raises the alarm at BirdLife

Shearwater bird colony is stumbling block for Sikka l-Bajda wind farm

The Yelkouan Shearwater breeding colony at Mellieha’s Rdum tal-Madonna is located just 2km away from the Sikka l-Bajda reef – a stumbling block for government’s plans for a wind farm on the reef.
That’s because BirdLife is calling on the government to conduct a two-year study on the project’s impact on the bird colony.
Malta hosts 10% of the world’s shearwater population, a third of which breeds at the Mellieha cliffs, the largest conservation project on the whole island. Ornithologists fear the wind farms could be potentially detrimental to birds’ breeding and migration patterns.
Effectively this would preclude the government from issuing an international call for tenders, until the studies are concluded in 2010, thus delaying the project by another two years.
“We are not saying no to the project,” BirdLife executive director Tolga Temuge said.
“We cannot say the project will have a negative impact on bird populations. But neither can the government say that it will not have an impact. This can only be established after studies, covering at least two years, are conducted.”
Temuge reiterated his organisation’s support for renewable energy sources of energy but called for a careful selection of appropriate sites.
“If a location is poorly chosen and is found to affect bird breeding and migration, it can be stopped under the terms of the Birds Directive. This would mean a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
On its part, government has announced it will be asking the Malta Environment and Planning Authority to conduct an environmental impact assessment on the proposed wind farm.
But MEPA could end up spending thousands of euros on studies, only to discover that a wind farm on Sikka l-Bajda would be in breach of the Birds Directive.
It is not known whether any other areas have been identified for land based or near shore farms.
Birdlife was informed about Sikka l-Bajda’s potential siting for a wind farm as early as June. Temuge confirmed that his organisation was contacted by an “advisory committee” appointed by the government for its comments on the proposed wind farm.
BirdLife has already presented a document highlighting the need of appropriate studies to determine whether a wind farm project would breach the Birds Directive.
The main aim of the Yelkouan Shearwater project is to protect the birds at their largest breeding site, and is 50% funded by the EU’s Life nature fund.
Although BirdLife International supports renewable energy, in the face of the threat of climate change, it also recognises the potentially detrimental effects of wind farms on birds.
These include collision with the moving turbine blades, the displacement of birds from the area around the turbines, barriers to movement which could disrupt ecological links, and the change to or loss of habitat due to wind turbines and associated infrastructure such as the powerful light beams switched on at night.
BirdLife International even calls for the “precautionary avoidance” of locating wind farms in Special Protection Areas (SPAs) and Important Bird Areas (IBAs) such as the Rdum tal-Madonna.
In 2003, Malta included the Shearwater as a protected specie as well as its habitat in the EU's Bird Directive, as well as identifying the cliffs in Mellieha as an IBA and SPA under Natura 2000's list of protected sites.

Life Shearwater Project
www.lifeshearwaterproject.org.mt

PRINT THIS ARTICLE

Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below.
Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.