Commenting on the announcement this morning by Energy Minister Jim Mather MSP, that the Eisgein Wind Farm on the island of Lewis is to be granted approval, Aedán Smith, Head of Planning and Development with RSPB Scotland, said: "We are concerned that such a scheme has been consented in an area of great value to Scotland's natural heritage, and which has one of the highest densities of golden eagles anywhere in the world.
We desperately need more renewable energy developments, including windfarms, to help combat climate change but this must, and can, be done without damaging our most important places for wildlife.
It is very disappointing that Scottish Natural Heritage, the Government's statutory natural heritage advisors, and Scottish Ministers thought that the level of impact on golden eagles predicted from this development will be acceptable. However, it is absolutely astonishing that Ministers do not seem to have taken this opportunity to require a detailed monitoring programme.
Windfarms with the potential to seriously damage important bird populations should not be getting approved but the least that could be done would to be to require a decent programme of monitoring to make sure we learn more about the way that golden eagles react to windfarms to help inform the decision process for other windfarms. Amazingly, despite the sensitivity of this site, the requirements to monitor the impacts of the development apear to be much weaker than for developments in other parts of the country.
"If deaths of eagles occur then we would expect a review of this scheme. However, there does not apear to be any requirement to properly monitor the windfarm beyond the first three years of its 25 year life.
"Any future wind farm development applications on these islands must also now be considered in the light of this approval so as to flag up the potential cumulative impact of onshore wind energy projects on protected birds in one of the most important parts of Scotland for them."
