Black-faced Spoonbill Conservation
YWPC is committed to balancing green energy and ecological conservation. Since 2021, the Black-faced Spoonbill Tracking Program has won several corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability awards for its results. Collaborating with experts, the program uses solar-powered global positioning systems (GPS) trackers to identify key habitats and flight paths, in order to better protect the endangered Black-faced Spoonbill.
YWPC firmly believes in the coexistence of green energy projects and ecological conservation. Since 2021, YWPC has continuously supported a multi-year "Black-faced Spoonbill Tracking Program." This initiative distinguished itself among over 200 entries in Taiwan's most prestigious CSR awards, the "Asia-Pacific Sustainability Action Awards (APSAA)" and the "Taiwan Sustainable Action Award (TSAA)," winning the Bronze Award in the "Life on Land" (SDG 15) category!
Not only does the Yunlin OWF include dedicated bird migration corridors, but through the "Black-faced Spoonbill Tracking Program," YWPC has supported to identify habitats as the key to the survival of the endangered Black-faced Spoonbill, one of Taiwan's most iconic migrating birds. Since February 2021, YWPC, in collaboration with the Bird Ecology Lab of the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology and Professor Sun Yuan-hsun, has utilized the latest solar-powered GPS trackers for all-day tracking. This approach has successfully overcome the limitations of traditional daytime visual inspections and the lack of nighttime activity data. To date, the program has identified ten (10) new additional activity hotspots and recorded more than 100 flight paths, establishing the world's most comprehensive database of first-hand flight trajectory data for Black-faced Spoonbills. This groundbreaking data is crucial for conserving the endangered species and conducting a global census of the overall Black-faced Spoonbill population. As a result, YWPC has earned wide recognition for its cross-field collaboration, action scalability, and social impact.
The "Black-faced Spoonbill Tracking Program" continues to provide valuable insights, especially concerning the birds' avoidance behavior at both onshore and offshore wind farms. These findings will enhance our understanding and help us design avian-friendly wind farms in Taiwan. From the tracking data collected between 2021 and 2024, there were 30 recorded avoidance events involving Black-faced Spoonbills at offshore wind farms other than the Yunlin OWF. Of these, 17 birds (56.7%) exhibited macro-avoidance, detouring to stay at least 500m away from the offshore wind farm's outermost WTG. The remaining 13 birds (43.3%) showed meso-avoidance, entering the offshore wind farm, but steering clear of the WTGs. None were observed flying close to the WTGs.
Looking ahead, YWPC will continue to share key insights on Black-faced Spoonbills and remain dedicated to sustainable actions that support the development of green energy projects, contributing to Taiwan's energy transition and biodiversity conservation efforts.
