From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Brazil’s Big Cats Under Threat From Wind Farms   
   By Luciana Magalhaes and Samantha Pearson, Sept. 17, 2023, WSJ   
   JUAZEIRO, Brazil—Weighing more than 100 pounds, big cats have long reigned   
   over this hot and semi-arid region of Brazil, developing tougher paws for the   
   scorched earth and reaching speeds of 50 miles an hour to bring down wild boar   
   and deer.   
      
   But nothing could have prepared them for the 150-foot blades now slicing up   
   the deep blue sky above them.   
      
   Jaguars and pumas are facing extinction in the Caatinga, Brazil’s   
   northeastern shrublands, as Europe and China pour investment into wind farms,   
   puncturing the land with vast turbines that are scaring the animals away from   
   the region’s scant water    
   sources.   
      
   Particularly sensitive to changes to their habitat, the jaguars and pumas   
   abandon their lairs as soon as construction work on the wind farms begins,   
   said Claudia Bueno de Campos, a biologist who helped found the group Friends   
   of the Jaguars and has    
   tracked the region’s vanishing feline population. They then roam vast   
   distances across the dusty plains in search of new streams and rivers.   
      
   The weakest perish along the way. Others venture closer to villages, where   
   locals have started laying traps to protect their small herds of goats and   
   sheep, often their only form of survival in this impoverished region.   
      
   The wind power industry has doubled its capacity in Brazil since 2018, setting   
   the country up to be the world’s fourth-biggest producer by 2027 behind   
   China, the U.S. and Germany, according to the Brazilian Wind Power   
   Association, an industry body.    
      
   But by helping to solve one problem—climate change—the wind industry risks   
   creating others, warn conservationists. Indigenous groups recently staged   
   protests in Brazil over the installation of turbines on lands they say are   
   rightfully theirs, while    
   environmentalists have also raised concerns that wind farms installed on   
   compacted sand dunes on the northern coast could have damaged underground   
   water reservoirs.    
      
   In the U.S., the industry has recently hit a series of setbacks, from supply   
   chain issues to spiraling costs.    
      
   “Wind power is a fantastic proposal, and the northeast certainly has plenty   
   of wind…but wind parks must also take into account what is happening here on   
   the ground,” said Campos, who also works for the government-run Chico Mendes   
   Institute for the    
   Conservation of Biodiversity.   
      
   Killing jaguars or pumas—or most other wild animals in Brazil—carries a   
   jail sentence of up to 18 months, but there is little enforcement, Campos   
   said. “Normally, the villagers bury or burn the bodies—they find a way to   
   make them disappear.”   
      
   There are now an estimated 30 jaguars and 160 pumas left in Boqueirão da   
   Onça, or Jaguars’ Ravine, a protected area that is their main habitat in   
   the Caatinga, according to Friends of the Jaguars. Since 2009, the number of   
   jaguars in the Caatinga has    
   fallen 40% while the number of pumas has dropped 20%.   
      
   While the big cats are still plentiful in the Amazon and Brazil’s Pantanal   
   wetlands, those in the Caatinga are unique, having adapted to cope with the   
   intense heat.  Jaguars have yellowish fur with black spots and are stockier   
   than pumas, which feature    
   a single brown to gray color. Jaguars are more sensitive to changes in their   
   environment, biologists say.       
      
   The disappearance of the felines would throw the region’s ecosystem out of   
   whack, leading to a proliferation of animals that serve as prey, such as wild   
   boar, deer and armadillos, said Felipe Melo, a researcher at the Federal   
   University of Pernambuco    
   who has studied the impact of the wind power industry in the Caatinga.    
      
   As jaguars and pumas have been pushed into closer contact with communities,   
   many villagers mistakenly believe they are growing in number—not facing   
   extinction, making it harder to persuade locals to save them, said Campos.    
      
   “My god, the jaguars are everywhere now,” said José Barros da Silva, 72,   
   who lives in Laje dos Negros, a small community in Jaguars’ Ravine. He lost   
   five calves last year—worth some $2,500, equivalent to a year’s minimum   
   wage.    
      
   “Only last week my son went to check on the herd and one of the cows had   
   claw marks across its back.”    
      
   Few people in the town admit to having laid traps. But resentment is growing.    
      
   “One of my goats disappeared three weeks ago, I know it was a jaguar,”   
   said José Ribeiro Marques, who has been eking out a living in the nearby   
   village of São Pedro for the past 20 years.    
      
   “It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “We raise our animals with such   
   care.”    
      
   Much of Jaguars’ Ravine falls into an area of environmental protection that   
   prohibits most forms of commercial activity.    
      
   Wind turbines are an exception. France is one of the biggest investors in the   
   Caatinga. Utility company Engie has two large wind farms, and French oil major   
   TotalEnergies signed a joint venture in 2022 with the Brazilian firm Casa dos   
   Ventos, which    
   operates in the Caatinga.  Spain’s Elawan also began operating a new wind   
   farm in the nearby town of Sobradinho last year.    
      
   Engie and Casa dos Ventos said in statements they had introduced conservation   
   programs, among other efforts, to help preserve the local wildlife. Elawan and   
   TotalEnergies didn’t respond to requests for comment.    
      
   Chinese groups have also invested heavily, with China General Nuclear Power   
   Corp. operating a wind power plant just south of the conservation area.    
      
   Chinese investment in wind and solar power in Latin America and the Caribbean   
   tripled to $3.8 billion between 2018 and 2022, with 55% of that cash going   
   into greenfield sites, according to a recent study by Ipea, Brazil’s   
   government-run economics    
   research institute.    
      
   With 26 gigawatts of capacity, Brazil’s onshore wind power industry now   
   ranks as the world’s sixth-biggest, accounting for 13% of the country’s   
   electricity. Of all Brazilian power generation, 53% comes from hydroelectric   
   plants.   
      
   Elbia Gannoum, head of the Brazilian Wind Power Association, said the wind   
   farms aren’t to blame for the shrinking population of big cats, noting that   
   regular visits to the otherwise deserted areas by employees of the wind power   
   companies help deter    
   illegal hunting.    
      
      
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