Save the Blue Heart of Europe - A campaign for the protection of Balkan Rivers
Europe’s biggest hydropower corporation, the Austrian Verbund AG, is complaining about too much electricity on the European market. Verbund Chairman Anzengruber says: “It is not the time for extensive new projects in the power plant sector over the next few years. That would not be clever in a time with too much energy”
++ Other financiers must follow suit ++ The World Bank withdrew its funding for one of the two big hydropower projects inside MavrovoNational Park in Macedonia.
The December issue of the GEO magazine features an article about the Vjosa in Albania and the price of electricity. Here an online teaser. Sorry, as yet in German only!
A wave of hydropower development fuelled by European public funding and EU companies is endangering pristine river environments in the Balkans, finds a new study by CEE Bankwatch Network released today.
An article in the renowned Berliner Zeitung reports about the uniqueness of the natural landscape in the Balkan, about the threat due to hydropower development, as well as about our campaign to save Balkan Rivers. Sorry, in German only: Das Blaue Herz Europas
Coverage about the Vjosa Tour event in Selenica and the projected HPP on the Langarica (Vjosa tributary) on Austrian public service broadcaster ORF (ZIB2)
Lots of things have happened in the campaign in the last couple of weeks. Visual impressions thereof are now available on our website!
The Tirana Times published an interview with Ulrich Eichelmann about the Vjosa River, its threats, the alternative idea of a Vjosa National Park and the Blue Heart of Europe campaign. Read the interview here: Protecting Vjosa, Europe’s last wild river
In his article “The last refugium of the Balkan Lynx”, the Swiss journalist Andreas Ernst reports about the critical situation on site, the chicanery of the authorities, as well as the commitment of dam opponents...
The September print edition of the renowned German magazine GEO featured an article about the GEO Days of Biodiversity at the Vjosa River in Albania. Now, the article went online: Europas letzter wilder Fluss Since it is only available in German read a partial translation here:
The interactive map to explore the region in detail based on different criteria.
The Eco-Masterplan for Balkan Rivers is a comprehensive study which, for the first time, combines knowledge about biodiversity (fish, mussels, caddisflies), integrity of rivers and floodplains (hydromorphology), as well as the location of protected areas.
We are a coalition of NGOs who have launched the campaign “Save the Blue Heart of Europe” in order to raise awareness about the imminent dam craze on the Balkan peninsula and to spare the most valuable rivers and river stretches from destruction.