The Barcelona Environmental Prosecutor’s Office has sent dozens of requests to companies, city councils and sports clubs to demand measures to prevent the death of birds when they crash into glass facades of buildings, bus shelters or paddle tennis courts.
The requirements, to which are added some investigation proceedings opened for crimes against wildlife, are part of an offensive undertaken by the public ministry to reduce the deaths of birds, many of them protected species, caused by the “mirror effect.” of the transparent stained glass windows, according to sources from the Prosecutor’s Office.
Especially in the migratory periods – spring or autumn – the death of birds that collide in flight with stained glass windows of office buildings, bus shelters and acoustic screens or paddle tennis courts in which the sky and trees are reflected is common. of the environment.
Every year there are thousands of birds that are victims of the “mirror effect” of glass facades, according to calculations by the body of Rural Agents of the Generalitat, which has recently intensified its actions to minimize the mortality of birds due to collision, with a total of 1,866 since January of last year, 60% of them in buildings, 20% on paddle tennis courts and 20% in canopies.
Collisions against glass infrastructure have a multiplier effect in spring, since bird deaths cause their eggs and babies to also die when left unattended.
To address this problem, the Environmental Coordinator of the State Attorney General’s Office, Antonio Vercher, has sent a letter to the delegated prosecutors in which he urges them to act to protect birdlife from collisions, applying the recent law on animal abuse. approved in Spain.
In its letter, from last November, the State Attorney General’s Office also calls on the competent authorities to promote the necessary measures to minimize collisions, solutions that usually involve the installation of pieces of vinyl with patterns or designs that prevent collisions. “mirror effect.”
Since January of last year, the Barcelona Environmental Prosecutor, Toni Pelegrín, has opened dozens of pre-procedural proceedings – a step prior to the criminal investigation – to force the owners or those responsible for the glass installations to take measures against bird collisions. . Within the framework of these proceedings, it has sent requests to the Department of the Environment and the Department of Territory, to several town councils responsible for bus lines that use glass or methacrylate canopies at stops, to sports clubs or to companies that own office buildings.
In the specific case of two glass buildings in the Glòries shopping center – where between 2019 and 2021 at least 141 birds died due to collision, most of them protected species -, the prosecutor opened proceedings for crimes against wildlife and commissioned the Mossos d’ Squad to investigate the case.
Months later, the public ministry closed its investigation after verifying the total “predisposition and collaboration” of those responsible for the buildings to prevent collisions with the stained glass windows: they committed to placing vinyls with vertical patterns that would eliminate the “mirror effect.”
The lack of regulation, however, makes the legal battle against the death of birds difficult due to the “mirror effect”: measures to protect birds are not provided for either in the regulations for the construction of buildings or infrastructure or in municipal ordinances. . Even so, the Environmental Prosecutor urges the competent administrations or authorities to adopt the necessary measures to guarantee the conservation of biodiversity in buildings.
