Plans to build wind farms next to a national park have riled wildlife activists who worry the turbines will ruin the landscape and impact elephants.
Some critics of the project are concerned noise from the turbines might disturb elephants living in the park.JOHANNESBURG - Plans to build wind farms next to a South African national park have riled wildlife activists who worry the turbines will ruin the landscape and impact elephants.
The decision has upset tour operators and environmental campaigners, including William Fowlds, a wildlife vet who runs a lodge in the area and complains the farms risk degrading"the wild experience of going on a safari"."No one is saying we are against wind farms, but if you place them in an area of high environmental value and high eco-tourism value, you are actually damaging the local environment and the people that live there.
The environment ministry said authorisation to build the wind farms was given upon the completion of an environmental impact assessment.Some have raised concerns that noise from the turbines might disturb the about 600 elephants living in the park, who communicate via low frequency infrasounds. In rejecting the appeal last year, the ministry wrote that the visual impact of the project would be limited, given there already are other turbines nearby.French firm EDF, which is among the companies involved in the project, already runs a 60 megawatt wind farm some 11 kilometres from Addo park, which lies just one hour drive from Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth.
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