Wind Turbines and Bat Populations
Convened by Luísa Rodrigues and Branko Karapandža Introduction Noting the importance that wind energy has in the implementation of the Kyoto protocol to reduce CO2 emissions and recalling the Agreement's Conservation and Management Plans, which call for the conservation of bat habitats in all cases of land management and development especially when foraging areas or commuting routes are affected, the IWG was requested to
- Assess the evidence of the impacts of wind turbines on bat populations and, if appropriate, to develop guidelines for assessing potential impacts on bats and for the establishment of wind turbines in accordance with the ecological requirements of bat populations;
- Continue to update the generic guidelines and compile relevant information, including methods to assess the impact on bat populations.
Resolutions:
4th Session of the Meeting of Parties, Sofia, Bulgaria, 22 – 24 September 2003: Resolution 4.7 (effective)
5th Session of the Meeting of Parties, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 4 – 6 September 2006: Resolution 5.6
7th Session of the Meeting of the Parties, Brussels, Belgium, 15 – 17 September 2014: Resolution 7.5
8th Session of the Meeting of the Parties, Monte Carlo, Monaco, 8 – 10 October 2018: Resolution 8.4 (effective)
Reports:
10th Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Bratislava, Slovak Republic, 25 – 27 April 2005
11th Meeting of the Advisory Committee, City of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 8 – 10 May 2006
14th Meeting of the Advisory Committee,Tochni / Larnaca, Cyprus, 11 – 13 May 2009
15th Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Bonn, Germany, 3 – 6 May 2010
16th Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Tbilisi, Georgia, 4 – 6 April 2011
17th Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Dublin, Ireland, 15 – 17 May 2012
18th Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Sofia, Bulgaria, 15 – 17 April 2013
19th Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Heraklion, Greece, 7 – 10 April 2014
20th Meeting of the Advisory Committee Budva, Montenegro, 23 – 25 March 2015
21st Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Zandvoort, the Netherlands, 18 – 20 April 2016
22nd Meeting of the Advisory Committee Belgrade, Serbia, 27 – 29 March 2017
23rd Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Tallinn, Estonia, 14 – 17 May 2018
24th Meeting of the Advisory Committee Skopje, North Macedonia, 1 – 3 April 2019
27th Meeting of the Advisory Committee Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 27 - 29 March, 2023
EUROBATS publications:
EUROBATS Publication Series No. 3: Guidelines for consideration of bats in wind farm projects Available in English, French, German, Romanian and Polish
EUROBATS Publication Series No. 6: Guidelines for consideration of bats in wind farm projects. Revision 2014.
Other relevant publications:
Impacts of Wind Energy Development on Bats: A Global Perspective. Authors: Edward B. Arnett , Erin F. Baerwald, Fiona Mathews, Luisa Rodrigues, Armando Rodríguez-Durán, Jens Rydell, Rafael Villegas-Patraca, Christian C. Voigt. In: Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of Bats in a Changing World