Tim McNulty
REGIONAL authorities in Spain are being pushed to do more to help the thousands of animals who die every year from being electrocuted in electric cables.
Birds of prey, including many protected species, have been killed on an industrial scale, something conservation groups have described as ‘truly a massacre.’
In total more than 33,000 birds of prey die each year because of electricity wires, according to a report by Spain’s Environment Ministry.
It comes as a lifelong British conservationist urged the company behind a massive electrification project in Andalucia to take responsibility and avoid ‘horrific’ damage to wildlife.
Red Electrica’s network of 362 mega pylons across the Alpujarras could see protection measures cut to save money, according to expat conservation expert Nick Chambers.
It comes after the Olive Press launched its Fight the Power campaign to highlight how more than 200 species could be threatened by the project, over half of which are birds.
“There is a whole list of regulations that need to be followed to safeguard these protective birds.
“It is highly likely they will do the absolute minimum to save themselves money on the whole thing,” Chambers, who has helped protect some of the UK’s most vibrant wetlands, told the Olive Press this week.
“Of course environmental rules are the first to be cut as they are the hardest to monitor.”
He has joined other conservationist and environmental groups in Spain in calling on authorities to do more to discipline the energy companies.
Nick told the Olive Press he was tired of businesses ‘abusing the system he spent his entire working life enforcing.’
Red Electrica claim they worked to minimise the towers impact on birds.
A REE spokesperson said: “In order to increase the visibility of these electric cables we use bird-flight diverters, which alert the birds to the presence of the cables.”
