ERDF, a partner of the LPO

ERDF and the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) are extending the partnership that began ten years ago. ERDF is committed to supporting the “LPO Refuge” programme with local communities in order to preserve local biodiversity.

ERDF and the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) signed a partnership in November 2010, on the occasion of the international year of biodiversity. ERDF is thus making it possible for local communities as well as public facilities such as schools, to become “LPO Refuges”. Through this partnership, the company hopes to strengthen its environmental commitment and ensure lasting ties with natural areas.

Becoming an "LPO Refuge"

What does it mean to become an “LPO Refuge”? An LPO Refuge is a public or private area of any kind and size: balconies, gardens, community green spaces. Becoming an “LPO Refuge” consists in working in an environmentally friendly and energy-efficient way, as well as adopting ecological management principles that favour biodiversity. The “LPO Refuge” network is now the leading ecological garden network in France. It gathers a network of 15,000 members.

The LPO offers a number of benefits through this programme:

• Local communities

• The LPO offers its expertise in setting up exemplary methods for managing green spaces that respect ecological balance. Several project examples include: the parks of Rouen and Poitiers, the Magenta site in Vitrolles as well as Boulogne-Billancourt, the first city to carry out a comprehensive assessment of its natural spaces as well as implement educational initiatives in schools.
  
  Since early 2011, ERDF, as part of the Linky communicating meter project, has been helping 40 schools in Touraine, France, develop “LPO Refuges” and teach children simple actions that protect biodiversity (the LPO holds “National Education” approval in France).

  
  
• Public facilities

• LPO helps schools, associations, recreation centres, hospitals, etc., to better understand biodiversity in order to protect it, such as by installing nest boxes, participating in workshops, nature outings, etc.

Employee ambassadors
ERDF aims to make its employees the primary ambassadors of this partnership. To do this, it will lead an awareness campaign in 2011 in order to improve their knowledge of biodiversity and give them their chance to become “LPO Refuges”. Complete information on becoming an "LPO Refuge" is available on the LPO website.

 

ERDF and the LPO, a historic relationship

As a network manager, ERDF has collaborated with the LPO for more than 10 years in order to reduce the impact of ERDF’s activities on the countryside and birdlife. A pioneering effort at the time, this partnership was organised through a National Birdlife Committee (CNA), created in 2004, which gathered the primary federations of naturalists and electricity network managers: LPO, ERDF, FNE and RTE.

ERDF and the LPO work together to eliminate the risk of electrocution to birds. The primary efforts of ERDF:

• underground installation of nearly all new networks
• desensitising lines by installing protective insulation near facilities
• installing rods preventing birds from resting on facilities or aerial switches
•  installing spirals on conductors, in order to make lines visible to birds

Focus on the LPO: :
Created in 1902 and chaired by Alain Bougrain Dubourg since 1986, the LPO numbers:
• 45,000 members in 71 departments and 21 regions of France
• 5,000 active volunteers