Study Birds and Get a Smartphone: DTEK Dnipro Grids awarded the winners of the Leleka regional contest

During the year, the schoolchildren studied the bird population, recorded nests and feeding areas on maps. Particular attention was paid to stork nests on artificial platforms built on high-voltage lines. DTEK Dnipro Grids workers install them to protect birds and their offspring.

“Biodiversity conservation is one of the activities of our company, which is in line with the DTEK-2030 strategy based on ESG principles, values and business responsibility for progress in achieving the sustainable development goals of the UN Global Compact. DTEK Dnipro Grids has been implementing the bird safety program since 2013. During this time, 162 safe nesting platforms were installed throughout the region. And we are very glad that schoolchildren join and help us,” says Andrii Tereshchiuk, DTEK Dnipro Grids CEO.

In 2020, 16 pieces of work from all over the region were submitted to the judging panel. Schools of five cities, three districts and five united territorial communities of Dnipropetrovsk Region took part in the competition. Schoolchildren presented projects in two nominations: "Scientific Research" and "Environmental Education".

Students of grades 7-10 from the "Ecomir" school club in Pavlovsk were the winners in the "Scientific Research" nomination. They presented their research work on the white storks population in the villages of Pavlovka and Perevalskoye, their living conditions and natural biotopes. And among individual works, the competition was won by Yevgeny Dyachishin, the 8th grade student of the Goryanovsk school, for the second year in a row, a student of the "Young Botanists" club of the Center for Ecological and Naturalistic Creativity of Students. The schoolboy carried out a large-scale work on the study of the bird population in his area. He watched the nests, and studied them - when the birds arrive and fly to warmer climates, where they eat, as they breed chicks.

“Thanks to the drone from DTEK, which I won last year, I could track nests from the air and to study the population on a larger scale. Unfortunately, it is gradually decreasing. Storks are leaving the nesting site due to the human factor, tree felling, drying up of rivers and low food supply. I believe that such contests and projects help to draw attention to such problems and contribute to the protection of birds and nature in general,” – says Yevgeny Dyachishin, the contest winner.

“DTEK is one of the few companies that really supports such environmental projects and systemic ornithological research in the region,” says Tatyana Khutornaya, a biology teacher and the head of the school club. - I am very grateful to them for this. Such contests are an additional incentive for schoolchildren to participate in the study and protection of birds in their native land. "

12 winners were awarded this year. DTEK Dnipro Grids presented smartphones, wireless bluetooth headphones and speakers, as well as portable power banks to schoolchildren.

Reference:

Since 2013, DTEK Grids has been installing special metal structures on power transmission line poles - platforms for bird nests, which protect them from destruction. For 8 years, DTEK Grids workers have equipped 248 special metal nesting platforms for storks in four regions of Ukraine, of which 162 are in Dnipropetrovsk Region. Last year alone, DTEK Dnipro Grids installed 25 nesting platforms for storks in the region. According to ecologists, such an initiative of DTEK Grids has already saved about 5,000 white storks, 3,000 of which are chicks. In addition, power workers install reflective diverters on high-voltage lines, which make the line visible to birds in flight. More than 1,200 of these protective devices were installed within the "Bulakhovsky estuary" reserve in the Pavlograd area. In addition, they set up wooden and metal nests for Klintukh pigeon listed in the Red Book, and scops owls of the Dniprovsko-Orel reserve. Moreover, they mount special covers on insulators and wires that make them safe for birds and eliminate the risk of power outages for customers. In just 8 years, DTEK Grids installed 3219 bird protection devices. These initiatives of the company are in line with DTEK's 2030 strategy based on ESG principles, values and business responsibility for progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Global Compact for the Conservation of Terrestrial Ecosystems.