Offshore wind: Wildlife protection cannot be ‘box ticking exercise’
By Ema Sabljak Digital Reporter
A much-needed move towards cleaner energy must not be at the “expense” of
Scotland’s biodiversity, conservation and wildlife experts have urged.
Offshore wind developments off the coast of Scotland could present the
surroundings.
Noise is just one of the concerns by wildlife campaigners. From the
drilling and construction in the early stages to the hubbub of its daily
operation, which could lead to behavioural changes of marine life.
As a home to hundreds of thousands of seabirds, the structures could also
impact Scotland’s globally important colonies such as Northern gannets, and
kittiwakes which are already declining.
An RSPB report which described the country as the “UK’s seabird stronghold”
warned that the number of Scotland’s breeding seabirds has almost been
halved since the 1980s.
However, the ‘Powering Healthy Seas: Accelerating Nature Positive Offshore
Wind’ report suggests that offshore wind could even act as a “key driver to
achieve positive change” for sea life.
Esther Brooker, a marine policy officer at Scottish Environment LINK said:
“There’s an urgency around the climate crisis, and we do need to be moving
rapidly and like a large scale to cleaner energy, but there is also
biodiversity crisis.
“We can’t do that at the expense of biodiversity, particularly, where there
is a role of diversity in the climate crisis, the resilience of our seas,
and the health of our seas.”
Just ticking a box?
Earlier this year, prospective wind farm Berwick Bank was forced to reduce
the massive area it encompassed to, among other factors, reduce its
expected impact on seabirds in the area.
However, as it stands the structure will still occupy land spanning across
845 sq km.
One expert warned that current wildlife protection feels like a
“box-ticking exercise” for the major energy corporations driving offshore
developments.
A researcher at the University College London, Catharine Horswill, warned
that important data that is already “out there” is not being considered in
existing wildlife risk assessments.
“The reality is that most of the seabirds in the UK are already declining,
we have a huge problem with our seabirds,” she said.
“Analyses that have been conducted don’t actually account for the fact many
of the populations are already declining. So, they assume stable population
dynamics, they assume a stable population trend.”
“I’m a huge advocate of green energy, but let’s do it in a way that we can
also minimize the impact that we’re putting on these already struggling
species.”
The researcher said offshore windfarms create two distinct risks to
seabirds: an increase in deaths due to collisions with turbine blades and
displacement, especially from key foraging areas for the birds.
“The key thing with seabirds is that they are very long-lived species like
humans,” she added.
That means a death of a fully grown bird could have serious impact on the
breeding of the colony.
Dr Horswill said: “There’s no reason why the juveniles won’t be hit as
well, but the effect on the population size is going to be greater if
you’re killing adults.”
Could offshore wind drive recovery?
However, offshore wind developments have a “huge potential to do something
really revolutionary in terms of marine conservation”, the researcher added.
She said: “You have these industries that have so much money and we could
be forcing them to put it into marine conservation.”
In the report on ‘powering healthy seas’, the RSPB also suggests that
planning systems have “failed to keep pace” with the development and scale
of offshore wind.
The charity has urged the UK Government to ensure robust ecological
evidence leads the placement of new development, to set out country-level
marine plans and to support innovative industry standards.
It also emphasised that the cumulative impact of multiple developments must
be analysed, measures to reduce harm must be monitored regularly as well as
urging for a strategic approach to compensation for affected species.
Catharine Kelham, senior consultation partner at RSPB Scotland, said:
“There needs to be a collaborative and a strategic approach with effective
planning, and it needs to be supported financially.
“There will be a cost involved and that cost needs to be borne out and
funding needs to be provided for this work.
“In terms of the road ahead, I don’t think it’s going to be a particularly
easy road, but I do think that perhaps the start of the road is in sight.”
Dr Horswill said there it is not the case of a “one rule fits all” and each
wind farm development should assess the needs of the local seabird
population and other environmental demands.
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