As biodiversity declines at an alarming rate and natural habitats become increasingly fragmented by human development, the need for innovative, scalable conservation strategies has never been more urgent.
Ecological Corridor Management (ECM) offers a promising solution by transforming linear infrastructure, such as high-voltage power lines, into vital lifelines for plants and animals.
This guide explores the science, strategy, and socio-political relevance of using infrastructure corridors to restore habitat connectivity.
From understanding the foundational role of biodiversity to implementing practical, field-tested measures that benefit both nature and energy networks, this article provides a comprehensive look at how ECM can serve as a catalyst for sustainable coexistence on a rapidly changing planet.
Biodiversity and Habitat Connectivity: Interdependent Foundations of Ecosystem Health
Biodiversity is indeed the foundation of our life on this Earth.
This initially sounds surreal, and especially insane to people from urban and civilized regions of our planet.
For someone living on the 8th floor of a residential building in a city, it is very difficult to understand why they, too, are necessarily dependent on the preservation of high biodiversity, even when their life usually takes place very far from these habitats worth preserving.
For them, all basic needs, including food, are available everywhere and in sufficient quantities. Furthermore, they are led to believe that everything they need can also be produced industrially.
Why Biodiversity Matters
So why all this current hype about biodiversity and the preservation of species diversity? Are environmental organizations and associations unjustifiably creating horror scenarios and stoking fears, or does this theory reflect the truth?
Unfortunately, it is the truth, and it is also very easy to explain.
The existence of all life on our planet depends on the availability of food, primarily plants both on land and in the sea. They serve humans and animals either directly as food or indirectly as food for prey in the food chain.
If a plant dies out, the animal species that necessarily depends on it will also die out, and sooner or later, all subsequent living creatures in the food chain will also die out. The more species die simultaneously, the more rapid the impact on species loss will be.
Biodiversity Decline and Its Consequences
The loss of biodiversity isn't a distant or abstract threat, it’s happening now and has real consequences for our food systems and ecosystems. This section outlines one of the most alarming symptoms: the collapse of pollinator populations.
The Crisis of Pollinator Loss
Currently, the loss of insects, especially pollinators (e.g., all bee species), represents the most serious damage.
With them, we are not only losing a prey species for birds and small mammals, but also an irreplaceable species that is crucial for fertilization and thus the ripening of fruits and vegetables.
If these pollinators die out, human existence is not only latently threatened but certainly threatened in the foreseeable future.
Therefore, our full attention is focused on the absolute preservation of these relevant plant species. Unfortunately, they no longer exist in the required diversity in areas intensively used for agriculture and forestry.
However, there is still great potential for species development in extensively used natural areas, such as power line corridors, and this can be excellently developed with targeted measures.
Why Linear Habitats Alone Aren’t Enough
That being said, this only achieves small successes, because one power line can only have a very marginal impact on biodiversity growth; it is too small and isolated for that. The real success for a solid development of biodiversity lies in the networking of all these small, mostly linear areas.
Great things always start small.
ECM in power line corridors can only be an "initial spark"; other suitable areas must follow. For this to happen, small successes must be made visible, and our mindset must change.
Shifting Habitats: A Global Challenge
Due to the constant increase in population, humans are taking up more and more space on the planet.
Every year, the Earth's population grows by approximately 200,000 people. While there were 6 billion people on Earth in 2000, there are now almost 8 billion, and by 2050, there will be approximately 10 billion.
They all compete for food, drink, shelter, and habitat. The losers here are plants and animals, whose habitats are continually becoming smaller and more fragmented.
We must urgently counteract this insidious process, because further fragmentation will ultimately lead to a massive acceleration of species extinction, and in this biological process, humans will ultimately not be spared.
Habitat Connectivity as a Solution
Despite the challenges of fragmentation, there is a scalable solution: re-connecting habitats via existing infrastructure corridors.
Connecting habitats facilitates the migration of animals and thus promotes a sustainable population.
This migration is also an important aid for many rare plant species, as it ensures the spread of plant seeds and pollen over long distances.
This has very positive effects on population resilience, as the mixing of genetic differences strengthens animal and plant species.
Power Lines as Ecological Corridors
Ecological Corridor Management (ECM) finds one of its most practical applications in the utility sector. Power lines, often seen as intrusive, can be redesigned as biological highways when managed with biodiversity in mind.
So what contribution can Ecological Corridor Management (ECM) make in terms of habitat connectivity?
Due to their linear structure, high-voltage power lines, when managed appropriately, have the potential to create habitat connectivity.
Conventional corridor maintenance (e.g., pruning trees to minimum distances) utilizes this potential only to a very limited extent.
More intelligence is needed here, and this begins with corridor mapping.
A thorough survey of the floral and faunal populations in a power line corridor, especially with regard to species worthy of protection, but also invasive species, is therefore a basic prerequisite for ecologically oriented development planning.
This forms the basis for implementing measures adapted to this biotope type, which then pays off both for the DSO/TSO and for nature in terms of biodiversity.
Facilitating Wildlife Movement
The linear course of the power lines in all directions represents a safe and food-rich "migration corridor" for many animal species to other habitats, which must also be visited for reproduction, among other things.
Red and wild boar and many small mammals are proven to like these routes, but so are predators that hunt their prey there. In some areas, many insect species (wild bees, butterflies) and beetles in deadwood populations are spreading again - following the food supply - which in turn are also prey for birds and bats, which are one step higher in the food chain.
The natural principle of "eat and be eaten" prevails.
By cleverly creating protection and cover options, e.g. by using distributed hedge structures as "stepping stones", it is possible to create a balanced relationship between prey and predator.
Scientific studies show a significant increase in plant and resulting animal species within the power lines compared to the neighbouring forest and agricultural areas.
Ultimately, the corridors are a vital habitat for all animal species prevalent there.
When power lines that cross forests are mapped, the ECM planning office should document the development goals of "biotope networking" and "stepping stones" on these areas.
To this end, crossbars or island groups of different vegetation should be "cultivated" within the corridor. These "stepping stones" allow small animals to move more safely from one side of the line to the other (e.g. small mammals versus birds of prey).
However, ECM corridors make a greater contribution to species protection in the longitudinal direction of the line. This is because they are often used as habitats and territories by animals that live on the ground and by animals that hunt in the air.
Strategies to Improve Habitat Connectivity
Turning theory into practice requires thoughtful planning and long-term maintenance. Let's have a look at some concrete strategies, from species mapping to vegetation management, that enhance habitat connectivity.
From Data to Action
The basis for improving habitat connectivity is knowledge of the animal and plant species found in this corridor.
In the second step, a development planner, possibly together with mappers, authorities and local representatives, develops an action plan for how and where enhanced habitats can be created that expand the habitat of these species and potentially also connect habitats.
Practical Measures and Maintenance Approaches
Continuously keeping a maintenance path approximately 5 m wide clear along the power lines can often be a proven and highly efficient measure.
Promoting plant growth through the targeted and intelligent removal of competing "inferior" vegetation, the slow development of hedge structures alternating with open areas (island formation), or the creation of highly valuable upstream forest edge structures are easily implemented but highly effective maintenance measures.
It is important that this transformation be carried out continuously, over several years, and moderately.
Radical interventions that deliver visible and measurable results the following year are ultimately unsustainable.
Speed only brings short-term success for a few species worthy of protection; holistic species conservation is what must be strived for.
This requires an appropriate timeframe, monitoring, and the ability to adapt conservation measures and rhythms if the goal of creating larger habitats is not realistically achieved.
Policy and Community Engagement
More than ever, the issues of biodiversity, species conservation and habitat connectivity are in the focus of politics and society, so these measures should always be coordinated with the relevant authorities and regional NGOs.
These bodies often provide very important suggestions for corridor design.
Governments often also set up financially substantial funding programs for biodiversity, species conservation, and habitat connectivity, which further increases the attractiveness of these topics.
While this is initially welcome and good, it also arouses economic desires and demands in many institutions.
In the worst case, the "nature reserves" they have created can also backfire on a DSO/TSO if they can no longer adequately manage their high-voltage transmission line routes due to the emergence of a "red-listed species."
The grid operator must not overstep its bounds here; their top priority is always a secure and sustainable energy supply, naturally in harmony with nature and humanity.
Conclusion
Increasing population density and the ongoing land use for the extraction of raw materials and energy sources are decimating and fragmenting the habitats of humans, animals, and plants to a considerable extent.
Among many other factors, the reduction of habitats also contributes significantly to the loss of biodiversity and species diversity.
We must address this existential threat, which is also a threat to us humans, promptly through targeted conservation initiatives.
High-voltage power lines can provide excellent services in this regard, as they stretch across continents like a spider's web and, with intelligent and ecological management, make a significant contribution to connecting habitats.
While fully aware that these power lines can only marginally counteract the rapid extinction of species on this planet (approximately 100 species die forever every day), the insights gained there can serve as a blueprint for other urgently needed conservation projects on Earth.
About the Author
Michael Wahl has dedicated more than 30 years to advancing high-voltage infrastructure and ecological corridor management. After joining Westnetz in 1987, he steadily progressed to become Head of the “Operation of HV Overhead Lines” department, a position he held until 2021. From 2021 to 2023, he led the Ecological Corridor Management (ECM) rollout at E.ON as Project Manager, coordinating efforts across 15 distribution system operators (DSOs) in Europe. By 2029, the entire E.ON Group will be managing almost 70,000 hectares of green corridors and overseeing an investment of over €40 million as part of this transformation. Today, Michael continues to champion ECM across the energy sector through consulting, public speaking, and close collaboration with industry stakeholders. He also shares insights and practical knowledge through a series of blog posts aimed at supporting a more sustainable and biodiversity-friendly approach to corridor management.
