"Fair winds or fowl: Clean energy clashes with conservation in Brazil’s Caatinga", 14 August 2023

" The Araripe manakin is a Brazilian bird so unique and so threatened that it has its own national conservation action plan. The species, Antilophia bokermanni, is endemic to the Chapada do Araripe region of Ceará state, and despite its beautiful contrasting colors and the red topknot of the males, was only described by science in 1998....

That’s why this bird with the fiery crest was one of the highlights in a report presented in 2019 by Qair Brasil, a subsidiary of French renewable energy developer Qair Group, when applying for an environmental license to build the Serra do Mato wind and solar farm complex. The project lies in the border region of the municipalities of Porteiras, Brejo Santo and Missão Velha, which means it overlaps with Araripe manakin territory.

Under Brazil’s current environmental legislation, the National Council for the Environment (Conama) requires an environmental impact assessment and environmental impact report (EIA and RIMA) as well as public hearings before a wind farm can be built in “areas of occurrence of endangered species with restricted endemism,” as is the case of the Araripe manakin.

And it’s not the only species of concern in this particular region. The study prepared by Qair’s consultancy identified another rare bird in Missão Velha: the yellow-legged tinamou (Crypturellus noctivagus), a near-threatened species.

The most obvious risk posed by wind turbines close to areas where such birds occur is collision with the blades. In the U.S., it’s estimated that more than 500,000 birds die this way every year....

Brazil’s Northeast region is prime territory for the country’s wind industry. Ninety percent of the companies in this sector are found here, 85% of them in the Caatinga, mostly in the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Bahia states. This biome has the ideal conditions for wind energy generation: more constant winds, with stable speeds, and that don’t change direction frequently.

The wind power industry is relatively new in Brazil; the first public auction took place in 2009, the first wind park started operating in 2011, and specific licensing legislation was approved in 2014.

“Federal law provides guidelines for state governments to enact their own legislation,” says Elbia Gannoum, executive president of ABEEólica, an association that represents companies in the industry. “We, investors, have been learning to deal with state legislation and we don’t see it as bureaucratic or restrictive.”

But some conservation experts say that while investment in clean and renewable energy is very welcome, greater rigor is needed to analyze and monitor the projects....

The Caatinga is the fourth-largest biome in Brazil — after the Amazon, the Cerrado, and the Atlantic Forest — spanning 860,000 km2 (332,000 mi2). As of 2020, however, barely 2% of its territory was preserved under fully protected conservation units, according to the environment ministry....

“The design of a wind power farm must prioritize preservation from the beginning,” says Silva from the Caatinga Association. “And an enterprise that is labeled as clean energy must really mitigate or totally reduce environmental and social impacts"...

Conservation experts generally agree that licensing processes for enterprises should be more rigorous and fully transparent, and that there should be constant monitoring and control over potential impacts and environmental compensation projects carried out by companies after construction is completed.

“There are 26 million people living in a relatively well-preserved ecosystem,” Melo says. “The Caatinga is a major living laboratory of coexistence between nature and man. But because the biome is not widely known and not strongly defended — unlike the Amazon — it’s easier for companies to advance through it.”