PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
As a transmitter of electricity, Elia’s priority is to ensure the security of the electricity network. This sometimes means that forest corridors are created to secure overhead lines. These corridors are currently often “no man’s land”, without any vegetation or wildlife. However, these same corridors could form an important network of ecological corridors. At present, public and private owners consider these corridors as non-productive forest sites, while the tourism sector denounces their negative impact on the natural beauty of the landscape. At the same time, transmission system operators spend considerable sums maintaining these areas to ensure that there is no vegetation that can hinder the overhead lines. This corridor maintenance does not currently take into account their potential value in terms of biodiversity.
OBJECTIVES
The aim of the ELIA LIFE+ Biodiversity project was to develop innovative techniques for the creation and maintenance of these corridors under overhead lines, allowing the maximisation of their potential benefits for biodiversity. The expected benefits included: the preservation of the natural beauty of the landscape; improved attractiveness to tourists, hunters and local residents; greater acceptance by the general public of line infrastructure in the landscape; and a better public image for the transmission system operator. The new ecological corridors would allow local biodiversity to develop and would help facilitate the movement of species from one natural site to another, which is especially important in the context of climate change. Specificially, the project aimed to restore 130 km of corridors under overhead high voltage lines in Belgium and France. The corridors would be approximately 50m wide. It would also seek to demonstrate that active management for biodiversity can reduce the costs of securing and maintaining corridors under overhead power lines. The project aimed to become an important pilot at European level that would share its experience with other European electricity transmission system operators, representing 300 000 km of potential green corridors. The project deliberately included project actions in corridors in three regions of France with very diverse climatic conditions, so as to develop several sets of guidelines and good practices that can be shared with other European transmission system operators.
RESULTS
The ELIA project team restored/improved 527.8 ha to benefit biodiversity: 486.3 ha in Belgium (428.9 ha when overlapping of more than one action on a same plot is excluded; 158.2 ha in Natura 2000 sites and 270.7 ha outside Natura 2000); and 41.5 ha in France (38.9 ha when overlapping of more than one action on a same plot is excluded; 19.5 ha in Natura 2000 and ha 19.38 outside). In addition, 137 new ponds were created in Belgium and 38 in France. The project therefore contributed substantially to the development and improvement of the Natura 2000 network, especially to connectivity between sites by reinforcing ecological corridors (green infrastructure along power line routes).
The project team developed a new approach for the management of electricity power lines and created an acceptance of this approach. The electricity transmission system operators (TSOs) ELIA and RTE decided (at the highest management level) to continue this work and extend the biodiversity-friendly method to their whole networks. This was supported by the project’s dissemination, communication and networking activities.
Specifically, the project team:
- Restored forest edges: 255.4 ha (123.3 ha new edges and 132.1 ha restored edges);
- Restored 21.6 ha of conservation orchards;
- Restored 88 ha of heath, peat bogs, and nutrient-poor grasslands;
- Created 175 ponds;
- Removed invasive alien species (IAS) from 25.3 ha;
- Created infrastructure for mowing/grazing on 60.5 ha;
- Diversified grasslands on 34.2 ha.
These project activities consistently exceeded proposed objectives (by 440% for heaths, peat bogs and grasslands; 302% for mowing/grazing; and 171% for diversified grasslands).
In Belgium, due to ELIA’s decision to extend the ecological management approach to their entire network another 375 ha is expected to be restored/improved with the same approach during the period 2018-2023 (following ‘After LIFE’ management plans). For this new phase, ELIA allocated a budget of €1 238 000. In France, RTE decided to extend the approach in three pilot regions (Ardenne, PACA and Bretagne), to restore/improve 300 ha more during the period 2018-2021. The most ambitious programme in Ardenne has an agreed budget of €800 000. In both Belgium and France, following public tender, contracts were awarded to companies created by the former members of the LIFE team.
The demonstration value and replication potential of the project’s approach is high, and it was extensively promoted during networking activities with European TSOs. The potential is the whole European electricity transmission network.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report (see "Read more" section).
