this very precious blue parrot that could well derail a wind project

The wind farm in the municipality of Canudos, in northeastern Brazil, was to develop clean energy production in a historically poor region. The French company Voltalia, at the head of the project, has to face the revolt of inhabitants and environmental protectors, who fear the impacts of wind turbines on a species of bird threatened with extinction: a blue parrot called Lear’s Arara-Azul.

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This parrot – drawn for the first time by an Englishman of the same name in the 19th century – lives only in this region of Canudos: it passed very close to extinction, with only a hundred individuals recorded at the end of the 1980s.

After 35 years of conservation efforts, there are now around 2,500, but they remain threatened. However, Voltalia, a French company present in twenty countries, has chosen two areas where this species has taken up residence to install 28 wind turbines. It must be said that the conditions there are excellent, with strong and stable winds.

But for the defenders of the bird, the huge blades of wind turbines and transmission lines represent above all a new risk of extinction. Local farmers and breeders share their concern and also fear an impact on their traditional farms.

Stop the blades remotely

If Voltalia first obtained all the permissions in 2021 and began the work, in April 2023, the courts paralyzed the site. The court has in fact considered that the construction of such a park on a territory where an endangered species is found cannot be considered as a project of low environmental impact, as it had been classified at first.

Voltalia regrets this decision and has appealed, as it considers that these impacts have already been widely analysed. The company offers to paint the blades so that the birds can see them better and ensures that it can stop the wind turbines when a parrot flies. Defenders of birds believe that the effectiveness of these measures is not guaranteed and are delighted with this first legal victory. But the project is far from dead, especially since the new Brazilian government wants to make the country the world leader in clean energy by 2030.