The company Endesa, in coordination with the Spanish Ornithological Society (SEO/BirdLife), has placed bird-saving beacons on a section of a medium-voltage line in Lanzarote to analyze its effectiveness in protecting the island's own avifauna. These are the first beacons to be installed in the Canary Islands, so the action will provide information to assess whether or not to incorporate them into other infrastructures on other islands. With these devices, the risks that these lines imply for birds can be minimized.
As Endesa has reported through a statement, in the case of Lanzarote, beacons have been installed along one kilometer. Specifically, these devices have been placed on the three conductors of the Teseguite to Los Valles line, with a distance of 15 meters between each beacon. The investment made by Endesa in this pilot test exceeds 10,000 euros.
These actions are the result of the collaboration agreement signed by Endesa with SEO/BirdLife, in December of last year, to complement existing studies regarding the possible risks to avifauna on the power lines of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, evaluate the effectiveness of the signaling measures and monitor the points where greater bird mortality is detected in the vicinity of the lines.
It should be remembered that Endesa and SEO/BirdLife already signed an agreement in 2008, which sought to assess the effectiveness of the corrective measures applied during the "Life Project of the Guirre or Egyptian Vulture of Fuerteventura" on the power lines of Fuerteventura. This assessment involved knowing the situation before and after the application of these measures. Likewise, the aforementioned agreement included the assessment of bird mortality on the power lines of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura in non-steppe environments, through the realization of specific field work that would allow completing the existing information.
