Establishing secure and sufficient supplies of renewable energy is an urgent environmental and economic priority for society worldwide. Given current technology and targets, substantial expansion of onshore wind energy generation is seen by many, including governments, as an achievable means of meeting this challenge within the required timescales.

Despite the urgency, it is neither necessary nor desirable for wind farms to take priority over all other environmental considerations. There is a need to balance requirements for renewable energy against nature conservation and other interests, which vary regionally. The European Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) mechanism is provided as a practical expression of this principle.

Peatlands are integrated ecological systems of vegetation, water and peat soil. Thus EU legislative provision for their protection and management can be found within both the Habitats Directive and the Water Framework Directive; and the soil protection strategies developed by some Member States in anticipation of a future Soils Directive are also relevant. As a result, the impacts of wind farm development are often assessed for each of the peatland components in isolation. This approach is inadequate because it neglects the close interdependence between the individual components of peatlands that underlies their multiple environmental functions - e.g. in water regulation, carbon storage and soil conservation - as well as their value for biodiversity and heritage. Furthermore, significant gaps in scientific knowledge still prevent reliable quantification of peatland-related impacts. Action to correct these deficiencies is given low priority due to low public awareness of the full environmental and cultural value of peatlands.

The problems that have arisen in planning and developing wind farms on peatlands highlight the flaws and gaps in the planning procedure. In order to avoid unnecessary impacts on peatlands and their environmental functions, policy makers and developers need information while consultants need robust science-based tools. New and highly relevant information is now being generated rapidly as increasing numbers of wind farms are installed on peatland, but this information is not being shared effectively. Consequently avoidable mistakes are repeated.

The symposium Wind Farms on Peatland (Santiago de Compostela, 27-30 April 2008) was convened to address these issues. It was attended by a variety of wind farm and peatland stakeholders and students, mostly from western Europe, but also from South America. During three days including a field excursion, the participants discussed and identified a wide range of points at issue, which are outlined below.

General

There is a need to adjust the balance of focus in wind farm planning to give more attention to peatland issues. This includes, inter alia:

• giving higher priority during both planning and construction to minimising physical effects on peatland and on the mechanisms and processes (e.g. water retention and peat formation) that maintain it;
• better incorporating landscape visual aspects, as important peatland values are related to landscape openness, limitlessness and the (increasingly rare) experience of wildness and naturalness;
• translating scientific knowledge and environmental goals into clear scenarios and recommendations for policy and practice - this might include expressing peatland values in monetary terms so that decision makers can understand them more clearly;
• not, however, restricting valuation to mere monetary terms as this does not do full justice to conservation sites which, as essentially 'sanctuaries', must function largely outside the 'normal' economically driven world;
• addressing each concern at the appropriate regional level - one clear lesson of the symposium was that e.g. experience from Scotland is not directly transferable to the Spanish situation due to differences in the policy and planning background as well as in the character and scale of the peatland resource; and
• establishing accurate and shared usage of language, definitions and terms.

Science base

Scientific knowledge concerning the impact of wind farms on peatland ecosystems has to be improved. This includes, inter alia:

• articulating environmental values and goals on the basis of scientific knowledge;
• identifying knowledge-gaps and uncertainties;
• developing and applying an inventory system for peatland functions, values, impacts etc. to catalogue the quality and condition of mire systems - this should also encompass less familiar functions of mires (e.g. as sinks for heavy metals and PAHs);
• better quantifying carbon stores, carbon balances and hydrology; and
• acquiring better insight into the prospects for natural regeneration (e.g. by paludification) and restoration after decommissioning of wind farm infrastructure.

Planning in practice

Regional differences in policy and planning background as well as in the character and scale of peatlands prohibit giving detailed a priori solutions for all technical problems. Nevertheless the impact of wind farms on the structure and functions of peatland habitat can be better estimated, prevented and mitigated by:

• appreciating effects on the whole system in addition to impacts on individual components and species (e.g. birds);
• avoiding wind farm development on (near-)pristine and designated peatlands;
• considering alternative locations such as cultivated land or other mineral-soil environments (which are more robust habitats), or offshore;
• taking into account tertiary and cumulative effects, such as potential future changes in land use in the vicinity of the development which follows on from the installation of access roads;
• when designing wind farms and turbines, taking into account the land on which and the landscapes within which they will be sited;
• improving project supervision (cf. Derrybrien!);
• monitoring sites before and after construction to collect (also long-term) information on impacts, successes and failures;
• sharing experience (incomplete, good and bad) and transferring it to other sites and components, for example by establishing an (ideally internet-based) database of good/best practice;
• expanding education and awareness raising; and
• taking appropriate measures for the conservation of at-risk areas (cf. Table 1).

Table 1: An example scheme for identifying adequate measures under various conditions.

Level	Value & vulnerability	Instrument	Recommendation
National	High	Conservarion designation	'No go' zones
Regional	Medium to low	Spatial planing guidelines	Avoid where possible
		Strategic locational guidance	Reflect nature’s heterogeneity and incorporate explicit acknowledgement of potential impacts and uncertainties
Site-especific	Medium to low	Technical guidelines	‘Best practice’ for construction and for rehabilitation of degraded areas while incorporating explicit acknowledgement of potential impacts and uncertainties

Tasks of IMCG

This challenges IMCG to play a continuing role in promoting positive action and international collaboration on these issues. Suggested focal points for IMCG include:

• preparing planning guidance for wind farms on peatland;
• reviewing research priorities;
• publishing scientific papers in high-impact journals;
• encouraging developers (perhaps via e.g. the Scottish Renewables Forum) to share and use cumulative experience and to apply uniformly high standards of practice, especially for peatland sites;
• promoting/establishing an internet resource to collect information for sharing between developers;
• sending a resolution to the Spanish Government regarding future wind farm development affecting peatlands in Spain;
• taking initiatives to raise awareness and provide information to the general public; and
• promoting the organisation of a follow-up symposium involving the full spectrum of stakeholders - tentatively in Scotland 2010.