34 | NNF ANNUAL REPORT
NamPower/Namibia Nature Foundation Strategic Partnership The NamPower/Namibia Nature Foundation Strategic Partnership was launched in October 2008 with a mission to address wildlife and power line interactions in Namibia, in the interests of promoting sustainable development.
A conservation-industry partnership seeks win-win solutions to wildlife and power line interactions
An environmental checklist and EIA guidelines on high risk factors and mitigation are being developed in 2015/16 to become part of standard EIA procedure. The effectiveness of mitigation is being monitored on sensitive sections of new power lines, such as at a wetland in Walvis Bay. Further priority areas for mitigation are being targeted for retro-fitting of devices. The Partnership has initiated three dedicated research projects. Tracking the flight-paths of flagship bird species with GPS satellite devices is an important prerequisite for
The project is funded by the European Investment Bank. The project objectives are to: • Monitor, report and manage power line/wildlife interactions, • Conduct research and incorporate bird/wildlife mitigation into existing power line networks, and into the planning of future networks, • Promote awareness and communication about the risks that power lines pose to wildlife, and wildlife to the power supply, and • Develop an over-arching, easily accessible environmental information service to assist with achieving the above objectives. Much has been achieved over the life of this project. An incident-reporting database has been implemented, with field investigators (including NamPower staff) regularly submitting reports of power line incidents. The Partnership has also initiated dedicated power line monitoring surveys in collaboration with NamPower and other partners; two monitoring projects have been conducted in collaboration with the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). From 2009-2015, 152 dedicated power line surveys have been recorded covering 3,500 km, with a rate of 0.08 incidents per km. A total of 483 incidents have been recorded during the project. The results to date indicate that the majority of species involved are birds, many of them species with high biodiversity value (raptors, bustards and flamingos). Survey/incident results are evaluated regularly, and recommendations are made for mitigation.
Persistent Sociable Weaver nesting on power lines can cause short circuits and outages, and sometimes fires.
identifying potential focal collision areas on power lines. An MSc project under NamPower bursary has been completed on investigating appropriate mitigation methods to address outage problems caused by weaver nesting. A second MSc project is underway to investigate the impacts of power line collisions on bustards and other birds, and to make recommendations for mitigation. Communication and information sharing are promoted with partners and other stakeholders, both in Namibia and elsewhere. A project website is maintained; sixteen newsletters have been compiled and distributed, together with media releases and journal articles. Awareness and communication have been promoted by means of a country-wide series of training/awareness workshops. A collaborative workshop/training session was organised with the Eskom/Endangered Wildlife Trust Strategic Partnership (June 2014), culminating in a visit to their project in South