📋 Tender Overview
Start Date: 01/01/2023
End Date: 31/12/2028
Total Eligible Budget: 14,141,546 €
EU Contribution: 9,474,836 €
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
In France, Belgium and Portugal there are over 180,000 km of high and very high voltage electric lines and 1.65 million km of medium and low voltage lines. The electricity system is highly meshed, threatening some bird species which face multiple risks: collision with electric cables, electrocution and disturbance. The risk of collision with electric cables depends on birds’ ability to see and avoid these wires as well as on weather-related issues. Every year millions of birds die after colliding with power lines, causing high mortality rates in some species. Electrocution occurs when a bird touches 2-phase conductors or 1 conductor and an earthed device. Thousands of birds die because of this every year. In addition, birds’ activities, especially breeding, are disrupted by maintenance work on electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure. This can lead to nest abandonment and poor reproduction. Some protected European bird species are more vulnerable to electrocution and collision with wires due to their size, body structure, behaviour and distribution. The 13 species targeted by this project are some of those most impacted by power lines.
OBJECTIVES
LIFE SAFELINES4BIRDS’ overall objective is to reduce non-natural mortality of 13 bird species caused by power lines. The aim is to ensure that high-risk power lines and dangerous poles and transmission towers are retrofitted using state-of-the-art methods and innovative technical standards for bird safety. The species targeted are the little bustard, bearded vulture, Bonelli’s eagle, cinereous vulture, Egyptian vulture, lesser kestrel, common crane, osprey, white stork, black stork, Eurasian woodcock, Eurasian curlew and northern lapwing.
