REN Biodiversity Chair

Portuguese TSO REN is engaged in the ‘Invited Research Chairs’ programme run by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and created a Research Chair at the Research Centre on Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (CIBIO), University of Porto. The research team focuses on assessing the impacts of power lines on biodiversity.

 

Highlights

• The Chair’s research plan is designed with clear benefits both for the company (improved management, use of scientific evidence in decision making and negotiations with nature conservation and impact assessment authorities) and the research centre (fostering applied research expertise, new contacts through REN led to new collaboration opportunities with other research centres, associations and companies from the energy sector).
• The aim of the REN Biodiversity Chair is to evaluate the effectiveness of impact mitigation measures and identify management practices to maximise positive impacts. The results have the potential to positively impact future best practice exchanges.

 

About the practice

Over the last 15 years, REN has collected a very relevant amount of data on bird-powerline-interactions, with high research potential. The data has been gathered via EIA processes (Environmental Impact Assessments) and via REN’s monitoring of the extensive use of their pylons as nesting places by white storks, aiming to manage the risk of power outages.

The REN Biodiversity Chair research agenda aims at providing scientific advice for decision making by REN, suggesting methodological improvements to maximise cost-benefit ratios in impact assessment and mitigation, creating an overview of and analysing biodiversity data gathered by REN in order to better understand bird mortality patterns, evaluating mitigation practices, and drafting a handbook of good practice for monitoring power line impacts on biodiversity.

In addition, the Chair carries out field studies to gather demographic parameters, simulate population dynamics and assessing population-level impacts of mortality caused by power lines on bird populations. There is also a specific task to gather information on the productivity of white storks nesting on pylons, which will be used for population simulations for this species, as well as a focus on research with regard to implementing the most effective compensatory measures.

Ongoing research of the Chair also includes the management of rights-of-way to potentiate biodiversity outcomes and technological development for impact monitoring.

 

Find out more

REN is the Portuguese transmission system operator, while FCT is a public agency that supports science, technology and innovation, in all scientific domains, under responsibility of the Ministry for Science, Technology and Higher Education. FCT runs the ‘Invited Research Chairs’ programme and funds 25 per cent of the REN Biodiversity Chair. CIBIO is the main Portuguese research center on biodiversity.

The REN Biodiversity Chair team includes a coordinator (the Chair holder) and 6 researchers including PhD students and post-docs.