A decade after the first systematic data collection on hydropower development in the Balkans, the latest Balkan Hydropower Update 2024 presents a mixed reality: while significant advocacy efforts have successfully halted many destructive projects, the region’s rivers continue to face ongoing threats. 

The International Union for Conservation of Nature released an assessment report about the controversial water abstraction project from the Shushica River. The report concluded that the proposed project would severely impact the national park’s biodiversity and fail to comply with IUCN national park standards.

EcoZ, together with the NGOs Pishtarët, GAIA Kosovo, and Riverwatch, submitted a complaint to the Energy Community Secretariat in Vienna/Austria against Kosovo regarding the hydropower plants in Sharr National Park. 

Under the banner “Uniting Voices for the Blue Heart of Europe” this year’s Balkan River Summit brought together over 100 international river conservation experts, scientists and activists in Podgorica, Montenegro. The event aimed at uniting river defenders to protect the valuable Balkan rivers and to speak out against the imminent and systematic threat the rivers are facing.

Local communities and environmental NGOs are celebrating the news that Croatian state authorities have ordered all construction on the Una River to stop immediately.

In a significant step forward for nature protection, the Croatian authorities announced yesterday that they are taking legal action against the construction of a dam on the Una River within a protected area of environmental importance.

Recently, an international team of scientists worked together to carry out extensive field research on the Sarantaporos River, a tributary of the Aoos, united under a common mission: to bring the whole Aoos/Vjosa River catchment under a strong protection status by creating Europe's first Transboundary Wild River National Park.

A new report published by ClientEarth provides an interim assessment of how effectively six Western Balkan countries are safeguarding their rivers by incorporating key EU laws related to hydropower projects into their national legislation. The analysis reveals that there has been some progress. However, the report also highlights specific systemic failures to comply with the EU framework.

From 22 to 28 April 2024, a science delegation from Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, and Italy collected multidisciplinary data in the partially undiscovered and intact Vjosa Delta. Every observation of this expedition aims to unveil the ecological importance of this area and advocate for its inclusion in the Vjosa Wild River National Park (WRNP) in accordance with IUCN standards.

12 mayors and numerous other residents of the Shushica Valley and other regions of the Vjosa National Park, activists, lawyers and scientists gathered this morning in the village of Kuç on the banks of the Shushica River. They are protesting the plans of the government in Tirana to take the water from the Shushica and channel it to the Mediterranean