An important decision for her. protection of endangered species represents a rejection of the plan to create wind power plant V Akarnanik mountains. The area where the wind farm was supposed to be located is important for vultures, and government agencies –Ministry of the Environment And Organization for Environment and Climate Change (OFYPECA)– give a negative opinion, considering that the “collision avoidance systems” proposed by the company for birds and wind turbines are insufficient.

The request concerned the construction of a park with seven wind turbines of 550 kW each around the top of Mount Kalovuni at an altitude of 692 meters. The area is inside it Natura network, in an area important to birds. In fact, the Akarnan Mountains region is the main area for the implementation of the National Action Plan for three species of vultures (Vulture, Black Vulture, Vulture), which is being implemented under the LIFE-IP4 Natura project. in the region.

According to the decision of the General Directorate of Environmental Policy of the Decentralized Administration of the Peloponnese, Western Greece and Ionia, the study of the environmental impact of the project was rejected, because “it appeared from the conclusion process that the integrity of the territory important for birds cannot be preserved. According to the Department of Protected Areas of the Ministry of the Environment, “protected bird species in the area are at risk of extinction due to collision with wind turbines.” The proposed mitigation measures “would lead to the displacement of species from their habitats.” At that time as the construction of a wind farm “is directly related to the general increase in human presence in the area (…), the end result of which is the violent fragmentation of the habitat and the alteration of the natural landscape.”

Accordingly, the OFYPEKA division of Ahelow Valley and Amvrakikos Bay ruled that “the construction and operation of the wind farm is becoming problematic and contrary to the objectives of the National Vulture Management Plan and the guidelines of Directive 2009/147/EK In fact, the division indicates the possibility of false data in the special environmental assessment submitted by the company concerned : there are serious indications that the censuses (including bird censuses) do not meet the conditions of the field studies,” they say, distinguishing.. …strange similarities between them.

OUR Greek Ornithological Society welcomed the decision to withdraw. “The decision to abandon the construction of a wind farm in Kalovuni is – unfortunately, a rare in reality environmental licensing in Greece – a balance of science and common sense,” said Apostolis Kaltsis, ornithology coordinator for the LIFE-IP4 Natura program. At the same time, the organization points out that “the refusal decision and its rationale irreparably exposes the region of Western Greece, which, using a variety of methods and fully aware of the importance of the area for the endangered vulture, licensed 15 winds. turbines in the main mass of Akarnaniki due to “salamization”.