The serious death rates caused to the wind power stations in Navarra are putting the population of some protected species in danger.

We have to admit it. Our previous estimations about death rates of protected species in wind power stations were far from what is really happening with the killing machines. A research study of the Department of Environmental issues of the Government of Navarra, carried out by a biologist not suspicious of belonging to an ecologist group, shows that the number of victims is merely bloodcurdling.

GURELUR has known the results of the above mentioned study by means of a person outside Navarra, because the Department, despite our asking several times, has always refused to show it to us arguing that it wasn’t finished. Once we read the results we ‘understood’ why they refused and did not comply with the law which gives us the right to receive environmental information.

Results from this study show the incompatibility of some wind power stations with the maintenance of Navarra’s ornithofauna

The above mentioned study covers from march 2000 to march 2001 and it has focused on 11 of the 22 wind power stations which have been built until today in our Community. More specifically the stations under study are the following: El Perdón, Leiza-Beruete, Mountain range of Guerinda (4 stations), Alaiz (2 stations) and Salajones, Aibar and Izko on the Mountain range of Izko. The total number of windmills covered by the study is 400.

During the development of this work 141 dead animals were found,138 of them were birds and 3 were bats. Visits to the stations occurred once a week and the flying of birds over the windmills was observed and the risk rate resulting from such flying was estimated . Regarding dead animals the study carried out corpse’s detection tests and also tests measuring the time such corpses remained in the area.

With all these data the study uses Winkelman’s formula to estimate the real death rate caused by the windmills in the stations. Given that not all killed victims are considered  -so as not to scandalize, we guess- we calculated the number based on data in the study. After this study, the stations of Izco-Aibar, Alaiz and Guerinda got bigger in size, which implies a higher number of deaths. The results would be the following: 749 dead bats, 472 predatory birds of which 443 vultures and 7185 passerines, which would give us a total of 8406 killed animals per year just in these stations. To this death rate, victims in stations not covered by the study should be added, as well as victims due to electric wires linked to these stations.

The Department of Environmental issues is hiding, in an illegal and disqualifying way, the serious aggression against protected fauna in wind power stations.

In addition to the complete shamelessness and impudence, the Director of Environment dares to organise a press conference during which he does not mention the total number of estimated deaths: he hides conclusions relating to the lack of previous studies about the use of the space by birds and bats; he hides that the study has not included animal’s deaths due to electric wires (which cause a high number of collisions) and electric shocks: he hides the death risk detected in endangered species, such as Bonelli’s eagle and bearded vulture; he hides serious damage to migrating fauna caused by these stations; and he also hides that the death rate of birds is pointing at the inappropriate location of some of the wind power stations.

The pieces of advise from the study in order to either avoid or minimise the real death rate of the avifauna and the big number of risky situations detected are not being taken into account by the environmental administration, which is permitting the construction of new wind power stations, behaving in an irresponsible and even illegal way. This is how the protected fauna slaughter does not stop in our Community.

GURELUR is about to present a COMPLAINT to the European Community about the deaths of protected species and also a report in Pamplona’s Court against the people in charge of the department of Environmental Affairs, because they didn’t inform the judicial authority about the reiterative crimes against the environment, being therefore negligent in their jobs as civil servants.

For the first time, after 11 years of existence, GURELUR strongly asks the media in Navarra to inform the population about the environmental consequences of the present development of wind power in Navarra, so that the population is well informed and can form their own opinion.

In the following table we summarise the number of dead birds in 10 out of the 22 existing stations in Navarra. To these figures we should add the figures occurring in the other stations and multiply the number for the number of years these stations have been working and the number of years they will keep on working.