Conservationists in Spain are calling for a “profound debate” on how best to balance the protection of wildlife with renewable energy demands after efforts to reintroduce endangered bearded vultures to an eastern area of the country had to be paused because of the threat posed by a huge new windfarm.
The bearded vulture – known in Spanish as the quebrantahuesos, or bone-breaker, because of the way it drops bones from a great height so they shatter and yield their marrow – was common across the country until the 20th century, when it was poisoned and hunted to the brink of extinction.
Today, thanks to a four-decade-long programme of conservation and reintroduction, there are more than 200 pairs of the vultures in Spain, France and Andorra – the overwhelming majority of them in the Pyrenees.
However, the push to increase bird numbers in the Maestrazgo area of south-east Aragón has been put on hold as the Foundation for the Conservation of Bearded Vultures seeks clarity over the precise dimensions of a proposed windfarm comprising more than 100 turbines, some of which will be more than 150 metres (518ft) tall.
The foundation suspended the programme in Maestrazgo after its experts analysed data from radio-tagged bearded vultures and Eurasian griffon vultures in the area. According to the records, the 10 bearded vultures flew within a 1km radius of the proposed turbines on 35,137 occasions, and would have flown directly into them on 745 occasions had they been built. The 12 griffon vultures flew within 1km of the future turbines on 26,500 occasions.
Although official statistics suggest more than 8,000 animals have died in windfarms across seven Spanish regions over the past five years, the foundation notes the figure only includes the carcasses of animals found under the turbines.
“Given that many carcasses are taken by predators within a few hours and that searches for dead animals are not common, the scientific community estimates that the carcasses found account for between 10% and 20% of all the deaths that actually occur,” the foundation said.
“That means that in just five years, between 44,115 and 88,230 animals have died – many of them vulnerable species or species in danger of extinction.”
Detailed mortality statistics from Aragón and Navarra showed that 1,387 griffon vultures, six Egyptian vultures, 30 golden eagles, 58 short-toed snake eagles and 76 red kites died in windfarms in the two regions between 2020 and 2022 alone. The Spanish Society for the Conservation and Study of Bats also estimates wind turbines kill between 84,000 and 253,000 bats each year in Spain.
According to the foundation – which says the proposed windfarm was signed off in haste by the central government because of the energy instability caused by the war in Ukraine – the development would severely compromise the survival of bird species in north-east Spain and this is the first time it has had to pause its reintroduction programme.
“We’re calling for a profound debate and reflection,” the foundation added. “For years, Spain has received important sums of money to recover habitats and safeguard threatened biodiversity. It now seems contradictory that, as Europe engages in a hurried and unprecedented rollout of windfarms, biodiversity in those same habitats is now being threatened … It’s not acceptable that the survival of Spanish birdlife should be compromised in the interests of solving a problem of production and pollution.”
Some politicians in the area have raised similar concerns over the windfarm project’s environmental impact. At the end of January, the local Teruel Existe party said it could bring a legal challenge against the environment ministry’s decision to press on with the development, arguing it could constitute an “environmental crime”.
A spokesperson for the environment ministry said it had already reduced the size of the proposed windfarm to make sure it did not intrude on densely populated bearded vulture areas where the birds also nest.
He added: “All renewable energy projects in Spain – and not just in the Maestrazgo area – are subject to the same strict legal guarantees when it comes to environmental impact so that the development of green energy in all areas is compatible with the preservation of biodiversity and the landscape.”
