Mavrovo National Park has been in unacceptable legal limbo for more than a decade. Despite clear legal obligations, the process of re-declaring Mavrovo National Park remains incomplete, leaving the park without key mechanisms for modern, efficient management.

In December 2025, the Bern Convention Standing Committee met in Strasbourg to address critical conservation disputes across the Balkans. Key reviews focused on hydropower developments in Mavrovo National Park (North Macedonia) and along the Neretva River (Bosnia and Herzegovina), alongside the construction of Vlora airport in Albania’s Vjosa Delta.

A coalition of 19 civil society organisations has sent a powerful message to the Government of North Macedonia: act now to re-proclaim Mavrovo National Park in compliance with the law.

Despite a proposed Nature Protection Law that would ban small hydropower plants in protected areas in North Macedonia, delays have allowed destructive projects to continue—threatening national parks and violating international conservation commitments. What’s standing in the way of stronger protections?

Last week, the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia made an extraordinary decision to revoke seven concessions for small hydropower plants in the newly proclaimed Shar Planina National Park. This monumental action strongly encourages NGOs' fight for free-flowing rivers and serves as a stepping stone to cancelling concessions for all small hydropower plants in Mavrovo National Park and other protected areas.

At the urging of nature conservation organizations, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention took another look at various projects in the Balkans at its most recent meeting. These include an airport in the middle of the Narta Lagoon in the Vjosa delta in Albania or a series of hydropower plants along the Neretva in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

During the recent annual meeting of the Standing Committee in Strasbourg, the Committee once again urged the Albanian authorities to suspend all preparations towards both hydropower projects until a strategic environmental impact assessment and social impact studies have been carried out.

In Mavrovo National Park, the construction permits for two small hydropower plants on the Zirovnicka River have been officially annulled, after the concession process for another project on the same river was cancelled in May. The decision was taken after a review request submitted by Front 21/42, our partner organization in North Macedonia, right after the investor announced the start of the construction.

Yesterday, the legal toolkit “Practice your environmental rights – legal tools and mechanisms” has been presented by the NGO Front 21/42. The toolkit provides guidance for national and international CSOs and activists on how to use their environmental rights with a special focus on the protection of rivers from destructive hydropower developments.

On May 14th 2019, the Government of Republic of North Macedonia decided to cancel the concession procedure for a low-performing hydropower project on the Zirovnicka river inside Mavrovo National Park, on the basis of a request for annulment, submitted by Blue Heart partner Front 21/42. The project was violating national and international law and undermined the protection status of the national park.