Hydro-engineering Institute Sarajevo (HEIS) and WYG International Ltd. are jointly implementing the project “Environmental and Social Impact Analysis and Gap Analysis for two Wind Power Plants (WPP) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, WPP Pločno and WPP Podveležje“, financed by the Energy 3 d.o.o. Mostar. The implementation of the project began in March 2017 and was completed in June 2018.
The aim of the project was to develop the Environmental and Social Impact Study for WPP Pločno and WPP Podveležje including the development of Mitigation Measures Plan to mitigate the impact of the project on environment and society as well as Mitigation Measures Implementation Plan with timeframe and cost estimate.
The project included the following activities:
- Activity 1. Gap analysis
- Activity 2. Stakeholders engagement plan
- Activity 3. Identification and assessment of impacts on birds and bats
- Activity 4. Identification and assessment of impacts on biodiversity
- Activity 5. Identification and assessment of impacts on water quality
- Activity 6. Identification and assessment of visual impacts, shadow flicker and noise
- Activity 7. Identification and assessment of impacts on landscape
- Activity 8. Identification and assessment of impacts on the socio-economic environment
- Activity 9. Identification and assessment of impacts on workers’ health and safety
- Activity 10. Identification and assessment of land acquisition and involuntarily resettlement impacts
- Activity 11. Preparation of the full gap ESIA studies
A particularly important activity was the 12-month monitoring of birds and bats before the construction of WPPs at both sites. Each month, HEIS experts for birds and bats were implementing up to 4 days of monitoring on both locations. The bird monitoring methodology includes counting of individual species, observing and counting of flights for each species, recording of nests and recording of possible migration routes (daily and seasonal routes). The methodology for monitoring of bats involves counting of bat colonies found in all types of natural shelters during the day (mostly caves) in periods of peak bat activities. The counting is done using mesh and bat detectors.