Proceedings. Conference on Wind energy and Wildlife impacts, 2-5 May 2011, Trondheim, Norway

Abstract

May, R. & Bevanger, K. (eds.) 2011. Proceedings. Conference on Wind energy and Wildlife impacts, 2-5 May 2011, Trondheim, Norway – NINA Report 693. 140 pp. Foreword Over the last 4-5 years NINA/CEDREN has been running the BirdWind-project, focusing mainly on bird impacts at the Smøla wind-power plant. As 2010 was the final year of extensive field activities, 2011 is the year for dissemination of findings. Consequently this was the perfect time for us to invite colleagues from the rest of the world to share knowledge on issues on wind-power generation and wildlife impacts, and exchange information across countries and continents. We are overwhelmed by the interest we have received, with nearly 300 delegates from more than 30 countries. Thank you for taking your time to come to Trondheim! Norway is an expensive country, and we have tried to keep the conference fee as low as possible. That has been possible due to our sponsors; The Research Council of Norway (NFR), Statkraft, The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), The Directorate for Nature Management, The Norwegian Electricity Industry Association (Energy Norway) and Mester Grønn. There are several logistical challenges connected to such an arrangement, and we wish to acknowledge Elin Kolden, Siv Simonsen and Odd Petter Haugseth from Stjørdal Næringsforum for their untiring organisational efforts over a long period of time. Due to the great number of high-quality abstracts received, the Scientific Committee faced a great challenge during the selection procedure. At one time we actually considered going for parallel sessions. However, we finally decided to organise poster sessions, so that nobody has to choose between presentations which may both be of interest; and this has resulted in the submission of many high-quality posters! We would like to thank the Scientific Committee for its efforts: Roel May (NINA; Chairman), Dr. Rowena Langston (RSPB, UK), Prof. Dr. Johann Köppel (Technical University of Berlin, Germany), Dr. Mark Desholm (NERI, Denmark), Dr. Andrew Gill (Cranfield Univer-sity, UK), Dr. Shawn Smallwood (USA) and Dr. Edward Arnett (Bat Conservation International Inc., USA). We also thank them for their voluntary support as chairmen of the different sessions. Not at least we will like to thank our keynote speakers Prof. Dr. Thomas Kunz (Boston University, USA) and Dr. Elisabeth Masden (Environmental Research Institute, UK). Bjørn Iuell (Statkraft, Norway), Dr. Manuela de Lucas (Doñana Biological Station, Spain), Dr. Edward B. Arnett, Prof. Johann Köppel and Simon Coote (Scottish Government, Scotland) are acknowledged for their participation on the panel discussion, as are all speakers for their presentations and contributions to the conference proceedings.