Drone laws should consider wildlife — uni study

Could drones be hurting our wildlife?

While the boom in the drone market has caused worries among the aviation community — passenger planes are increasingly having runins with the flying machines — researchers say policymakers have overlooked the disturbance they cause to animals.

Now a University of Waikato study has found lawmakers have been playing catch-up on regulations relat- ing to drones and wildlife. Lead author Dr Pip Wallace said she and her colleagues had been moved to look into the issue after studying Waikato’s coastal environment.

“We had been talking about the growing recreational use of drones and wanted to better understand potential impacts and limits of the regulatory framework.”

Wallace said “it was the ‘can anyone just fly drones anywhere?’ question” that spurred them on.

After reviewing literature relating to drone benefits and issues, they found unmanaged use could disturb wildlife through low-altitude presence, noise and prevalence. But these effects depended on the species, and the skill level of the drone’s operator.

After examining New Zealand law and policy, doing a case study on local authority approaches and comparing the position in other countries they concluded drone operations should be guided by specific policy addressing effects on wildlife and, where needed, regulated to prevent harm from disturbance.

The team recommended strong measures in New Zealand, including consideration of distance setbacks.

“New Zealand has high rates of threatened species, many of which live outside protected reserves,” Wallace said. “Areas like the New Zealand coastal environment combine high rates of threatened birds with intensifying human development and recreational activity.”

At the same time, drone use was growing rapidly, with strong uptake from recreational users able to buy drones off the shelf, Wallace said.

“As contests for airspace grow, New Zealand needs more effective mechanisms to protect and conserve biodiversity in airspace habitat.”

NZ’s regulations for drone use are more relaxed than elsewhere in the world because of updated civil aviation rules introduced in 2015.

The Civil Aviation Authority was reviewing the rules.

The study follows a 2015 study by University of Minnesota scientists.