GPS‐tracked vultures indicate a relaxation of conservation commitments in renewable energy development

Abstract Strategic and well‐informed environmental planning tools are instrumental to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Given the boost in renewable energy facilities, different planning tools are being proposed to identify low‐sensitive areas for the installation of these infrastructures, where environmental impact assessment procedures are simplified. However, the effectiveness of these tools is rarely scrutinized and, therefore, if they are fit for purpose remains unsolved. We used data from 90 GPS‐tracked griffon and bearded vultures to assess the level of spatial agreement between vultures' space use at heights with a risk of collision with wind turbines and the environmental sensitivity to wind energy identified by official planning tools. Despite relatively high agreements (>0.6 out of 1), these tools still misclassified up to ~88% of vultures' home ranges, with strong disagreements observed in foraging grounds, movement corridors and near breeding colonies. Furthermore, the spatial agreement decreased when considering the legally binding categories (>0.6 out of 1) in contrast with the non‐statutory categories (>0.9 out of 1). Synthesis and applications . Our results highlight the need to evaluate and improve official spatial planning tools developed to minimize environmental impacts such as those of renewable energies. GPS‐tracking data from vulnerable species help in identifying risk areas misclassified by the planning tools, which should also be founded in a proper legal background (e.g., constraining development in the most sensitive areas) to avoid limiting their effectiveness in practice.