Karpowership: bird counting environmental project for Richards Bay energy operations done and dusted

After a swathe of environmental appeals processes, on 25 October Richards Bay became the first environmentally licensed site for Karpowership’s gas-to-electricity operations. Decisions are pending on Saldanha in the Western Cape and Coega in the Eastern Cape.

As always in contested matters, the devil is in the detail — in this case, a list of 34 specific conditions in the 27-page Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s (DFFE’s) environmental authorisation decision document.

“A 12-month pre-construction monitoring for avifaunal species must be undertaken to inform the scale and magnitude of the residual impacts... The monitoring must be undertaken prior to construction commencing.”

Plainly put, a year-long bird counting and monitoring project is required before any construction starts on the required 3.6km powerline to the national grid via Bayside Impala and a switching station. That’s because a baseline for the birdlife must be set so the impact of the construction can be measured — and off-sets or compensation determined.

But Karpowership SA says that monitoring has already been done. “A full 12-month bird count has already been undertaken by the avifaunal specialists and thus in full compliance to the condition in the authorisation,” the company said in an emailed response to a request for comment.

A final development layout, including all available biodiversity information, must be submitted to the DFFE for “written approval prior to commencement of activities”, according to the authorisation. It could not immediately be confirmed how far along that process was and how the sequencing of conditions was to unfold.

Apart from birds, monitoring of elephants and black and white rhinos is also among the conditions of the Richards Bay environmental authorisation.

Central here is Karpowership’s acquisition of the Madaka Game Ranch, which was introduced to the sellers by Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife just ahead of a planned auction in March that was subsequently cancelled, as amaBhungane reported in September.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Karpowership game ranch ‘donation’ raises new stink over green offset schemes

“The Madaka Game Ranch must be incorporated into the Ithala Game Reserve and registered as a biodiversity protected area... A formal agreement to this effect must be concluded within 18 months from the date of issue of this environmental authorisation and records must be submitted to the department for record keeping,” says the 25 October environmental authorisation citing biodiversity targets like elephant and black and white rhino populations.

The Ithala Game Reserve is publicly owned and managed by Ezemvelo. 

But back to birds.

After the pre-construction 12-month birdwatching, another 12-month monitoring period starts once the construction is completed.

“Results from the monitoring will inform implementation of and any enhancement to the proposed mitigation measures to ensure that the development does not have a long-term impact on the SCCs [species of conservation concerns] and migratory waders in the area,” the environmental authorisation says.

Monitoring also includes the Sandspit and Kabeljous Flats — waders and tern territory — for which Karpowership SA told Daily Maverick by email it “already has a full complement of suitably qualified and professionally registered specialists to ensure compliance to the conditions of the environmental authorisations”.

Mired in controversy

Cost concerns