Feathers Environmental Services
I completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Management from the University of South Africa and been involved in conservation for 18 years. I have a decade’s worth of experience in the field of bird interactions with electrical infrastructure. In various roles (including Programme Manager) with the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Wildlife & Energy Programme and the Programme’s primary project (Eskom-EWT Partnership) from 2006 to 2013, I was responsible for assisting the energy industry and the national utility in minimising the negative impacts (associated with electrical infrastructure) on birds through the provision of strategic guidance, risk and impact assessments, training and research. I currently own and manage Feathers Environmental Services and tasked with providing strategic guidance to industry through the development of best practice procedures and guidelines, reviewing monitoring methodologies, specialist studies and EIA reports for renewable energy and power line developments within South Africa, elsewhere in Africa and across the globe. I have attended and presented at several conferences and facilitated workshops, as a subject expert, since 2007. Although the power line threat is not exclusive to stork, ibis and spoonbill species, these species have proven to be vulnerable to the threat in South Africa and across its borders for far-ranging species. These species (among others) have been the subject of a considerable amount of work (by both myself and my colleagues), either in the form of research, requiring specific mitigation measures, their role as indicator species for specific habitats that require conservation or included as EIA priority species.