PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Climate change and overfishing have profoundly affected marine ecosystems, disrupting delicate ecological balances. Dwindling fish stocks result in food shortages for seabirds, making it one of the main drivers for the global decline in seabird populations, which fell by 69.10% between 1950-2010. The largest declines were observed in families containing wide-ranging pelagic species.
Food shortages have particularly severe consequences during the breeding season when populations are less mobile and therefore more dependent on smaller, more defined foraging sites. This causes nesting productivity to decrease, breeding sites to be abandoned, and egg, young and adult mortality drastically increases.
One of the most heavily affected seabirds is Rissa tridactyla, the black-legged kittiwake, a cliff breeding piscivorous pelagic species. In addition to food shortages, the species is also known to use offshore clean energy infrastructure for breeding, but the lack of a data-driven strategy is hampering an optimal coexistence of breeding kittiwakes and human activities in these sites.
A constant and rapid decline of this bird species (40% over the last 3 generations (39 years)) has led to the black-legged kittiwake population in the EU being classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List. This species is also protected by the EU Birds Directive and 4 international agreements.
OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the NID4BirdLIFE project is to counter the disastrous black-legged kittiwake population decline by establishing a new long-lasting breeding stronghold in an area with rich foraging grounds on the Princess Elisabeth Energy Island in the North Sea. This project is the first step in the development of a nature-inclusive design (NID) ecosystem at the Princess Elisabeth Energy Island.
The specific objectives of the project are to:
- integrate NID elements on the wave walls of the Princess Elisabeth Energy Island
- promote the coexistence of protected seabirds and offshore infrastructure by demonstrating the effectiveness of NID to establish a safe and successful breeding site for the black-legged kittiwake
- catalyse harmonious coexistence of breeding the black-legged kittiwake and (future) human activity at offshore clean energy infrastructure by establishment of a state-of-the-art and future perspectives report on NID
- create a best practices manual for bird monitoring in artificial offshore environments.
- stimulate environmental benefits through the NID design of offshore clean energy infrastructure
RESULTS
The expected results of the NID4BirdLIFE project are:
- creation of an unprecedented breeding capacity of >5 000 breeding pairs, with an expected minimal occupancy of 250 sustainable breeding pairs by the end of the project on a 2 672m long NID nesting site on the flood walls of Princess Elisabeth Island
- an innovative multi-faceted monitoring strategy, combining radar and camera monitoring alongside citizen science elements, to help fill the existing knowledge gaps related to NID for birds at offshore clean energy infrastructure
- sharing data through several platforms to ensure exploitation of the project results
- an extensive stakeholder engagement and communication plan to catalyse the implementation of NID for birds in future offshore projects, building on the extensive multi-disciplinary expertise of the project consortium and the support of a broad range of stakeholders including non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Transmission System Operator's (TSOs), members of the academic community, public authorities and national and European networks
- setting of a new industry standard by pioneering a way for a TSO to go beyond mitigating the negative impacts of their energy infrastructure from the design phase onwards by integrating measures that will create and stimulate positive effects on biodiversity
