Introduction

This paper begins by identifying the range of international legal and regional instruments of potential relevance to wind farm development, both on - and offshore. The international legal framework addressing biodiversity protection is then examined as constituting a subset of those legal instruments of direct relevance to wind farms. The impacts and threats of wind farms (both on - and offshore) to biodiversity (in particular, avian biodiversity) are then analysed. The paper concludes with a discussion on implementing wind farm environmental impact assessment (EIA) principles and ...