Categories · Threats
Hydroelectric schemes
The construction of hydroelectric plants is seen as an obvious choice for providing clean, low cost electricity, however, they can have a very negative impact on the environment which has included many conifer habitats around the world. Habitat loss can be by inundation of an area or indirect by the loss of downstream habitats through changes in water levels.
It is estimated that 15% of the habitat of Lagarostrobos franklinii in Tasmania has been lost through flooding for hydroelectric schemes in the past 100 years. More recently a newly discovered stand of Glyptostrobos pensilis in Lao PDR has been flooded as a result of a newly completed hydro-scheme. Populations of Prumnopitys andina, which often grow on the margins of fast-flowing rivers in Chile, are now under serious threat from a new generation of hydroelectric schemes being developed. In the 1960s several stands of Neocallitropsis pancheri were destroyed due to flooding from the Yat̩ dam in southern New Caledonia.
There are 7 taxa in the category – Energy production and Infrastructure development, Hydroelectric schemes:
