We are the leading ecological consultancy in Turkey, providing reliable ecological advice based on on-ground experience, robust data and high-standard studies. We assist major companies and international finance institutions to comply with IFC PS6 Standards for sustainable development.
Our services include ecological impact assessment, due-diligence studies and ecological monitoring at development projects, such as highways, wind power plants, airports and other sectors. We help you develop mitigation and offset strategies that align with the project’s Biodiversity Action Plan. Specifically for wind farms, we provide bird and bat surveys, mortality studies and bird collision mitigation services.
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Ornithological (bird) studies are considered to be critical for environmental impact assessments and biodiversity studies. Even though wind is considered to be a nature and climate friendly alternate energy source, wind farms might indeed have adverse effects on wildlife. Birds often top the list of most affected species. Collision fatality, disturbance and displacement, barrier effect and habitat loss are some of the negative outcomes that birds encounter. Birds that gather in large numbers (mainly during migration) and bird species that are threatened are two risk factors to investigate in wind farms. ...
Mortality due to collision with turbine blades might be a serious concern at wind farms where bird activity levels are high or threatened species use the airspace. Mitigation measures to prevent collision mortality might be necessary if collision risk is evaluated to be high in ornithological studies. A common and effective mitigation practice is active turbine management through shut-down on demand. This practice minimizes both of collision mortality and energy production loss. The following three are needed to implement this measure: A reliable baseline bird survey Expert bird surveyors A protocol developed for the unique needs of the site The protocol delineates the responsibilities of command desk and surveyors. It details the answers to the who, where, when, what and how much questions pertaining to shut-down events in very clear t ...
Bats frequently face adverse affects in wind farms either due to collision with the blades or due to barotrauma if they happen to be near enough to encounter the sudden change in air pressure as the blades spin (which they often are). Bat population near wind farms might quickly face local extirpations due to these effects, coupled with their low reproductive rates. In order to predict the extent of impact on bats at a project site, especially prior to construction phase, we conduct acoustic studies to obtain diversity and activity indices. Increased density of bats or presence of threatened species may signal potential risks and should be taken into account during financing. ...
Although wind farms are generally considered as causing the least disturbance to the environment for energy production, they might be responsible for significant rates of bird and bat mortality through collisions. It is quite a challenge for birds and bats to escape a blade tip spinning at 300 km/h after all! Bats populations are susceptible to local extirpations due to their low reproductive rates. Reliable estimations of bird and bat mortality rates are required in order to assess the biodiversity impact of the project. Yearly mortality estimates become an important metric for the success of mitigation measures down the road. Estimates are made in 3 steps: Routine carcass searches are conducted and all carcasses are documented in detail Adjustment factors are determined through experimental studies, to account for surveyor efficiency a ...
News & Blog
16.01.24
2023 was a year full of challenges for at global and national scale. As KAB Ecology, we continued to work hard and here I want to summarize our main achievements in 2023. Projects: We conducted bird mo
Complete implementation of mitigation hierarchy for wind farms in Turkey remains a work-in-progress in 2022. In this blog post, we will attempt to evaluate the extent and success of implementation of different
10.06.22
One of the main issues with investigating bird and bat mortality at wind farm sites is the removal of the remains of the dead animal, the “carcass”, by scavengers (such as ravens, jackals or insects) before th
