On December 10, ERM West officially announced the end of the project "Life for the birds“ (LIFE16 NAT/BG/000612), which is implemented under the LIFE program in partnership with the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds.
In the period 27-28.11.2024 the company successfully passed a final technical audit by independent auditors from the European Commission in connection with the implementation of project activities. The conclusion of the auditors from the European Commission is that the activities planned in the project were carried out in full, with very high quality and no inconsistencies were found.
The "Life for Birds" project, LIFE16 NAT/BG/000612, is the first project with European funding for ERM West. It lasted 87 months and was realized in 19 specially protected areas of NATURA 2000 in Western Bulgaria. Its purpose is to protect the populations of endangered species of birds by reducing the risk of their collision with overhead electric wires, providing safe places for nesting and improving the electricity distribution infrastructure in the hard-to-reach areas of Western Bulgaria.
Within the project, a total of 5,400 electric ladders were secured by placing insulating material on them. 3,600 reflective markers were installed on 120 km of overhead power lines. Markers attract the attention of birds and make the wires more visible to them. At-risk nests for the white stork were secured, with 940 platforms installed for the birds to build their nests safely on. A project task force created a prototype for a bird-safe pole. From it, 23 pillars were placed in a pilot in Western Bulgaria. Three online cameras have also been installed in stork nests, which broadcast live on the BDZP YouTube channel.
The "Life for Birds" project, with a total value of 2.647 mln. euro, has been honored with numerous awards from prestigious national and international competitions – first place in the "Green Project" category; in the contest “The greenest companies” for 2019, national winner in the international ranking of Energy Globe Awards 2020, first place in the category “Investor in the environment“ of the BFBL in 2021. Within the project, a number of competitions, exhibitions, events and painting of electrical equipment were implemented.
ERM West continues its work on a second project under the LIFE program - “Safe skies for Danube birds”, LIFE19 NAT/SK/001023, which is implemented jointly with seven European countries and its partners from the BDZP.
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