Together with the Ornithological Society of Romania, Enel created The Nest Address, a geolocation app that people can use to send GPS coordinates of any stork nest they see. It is the first mobile crowd-sourced initiative to keep storks safe. Anyone with a smartphone can now send nest locations, that will even receive physical addresses.

The Nest Address is an easy-to-use geolocation tool. When seeing a stork nest, people take a picture of it using the app. The photo is automatically embedded with the precise GPS coordinates and sent to Enel. Users can choose to add further data: number of birds, nest condition etc. The locations are received by Enel headquarters, that sends teams to check and secure nests.

The app also provides valuable information for The Ornithological Society of Romania, to help their conservation efforts.

Download the app on Google Play & App Store as “Uite Barza!” (Romanian name).

Enel and the Ornithological Society of Romania launched the app in a press event, inviting journalists and influencers.

We also convinced local authorities to give out real-life addresses to stork nests in their area. As the story broke, national news outlets reported on the initiative.

People started downloading the app on Google Play and App Store (Romanian name: Uite barza!) and new nest locations started coming in every day, during the first season of the campaign (spring-summer of 2017).

Enel crews secured the hazardous nests, keeping the storks safe from electrocution.

This was just the first flight of the campaign. The app will stay on in the future as a long-term solution for Enel, helping protect storks for seasons to come.

The campaign was a success for Enel and the Ornithological Society of Romania. More than 2.800 nests were identified, amounting to over 8.200 storks. This means that 80% of the estimated stork population of Romania (10.000 birds) was located - data from the Ornithological Society of Romania.

We found that 54% of the nests put the storks in danger of electrocution because of power lines. Based on locations sent by app users, 93% of all nests were secured by Enel crews with special non-conductive frames, that keep the storks safe.

The results are even more valuable as storks rarely change their nests, returning every year to the same location. This way, conservation experts can now monitor stork population on the long run, as every year new data will be provided by app users.